Brief Encounters

about Gregory Crewdson

I was a man who thrived on solitude,
without it I was like another man without food or water…
The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me

Charles Bukowski

Another effective example of how technology seems now essential to art to make the most of the emotional forms of our time, is the work of the photographer Gregory Crewdson, from Brooklyn, renowned for his elaborately devised photographs of small-town life.

Impossible not to be overwhelmed by his exquisitely American atmospheres created by using constructed backgrounds, computer graphics and digital manipulation, just to blur the distinction between reality and fiction. He uses a variety of lighting sources, such as operating lighting experts, trying to create the typical American neighbourhood.

Some people find the experience rather surreal, melancholic or haunting, but, as the author himself says: “it’s about trying to make a connection in the world. I see my pictures as more optimistic in a certain way. Even though it’s very clear there’s a level of sadness and disconnection, I think that they’re really about trying to make a connection and almost the impossibility of doing so. We all look for moments of clarity in our lives, because our lives are generally filled with chaos and confusion and disorder and complication. And we all strive to find clarity and order”.

Influenced by the work of artists as Edward Hopper and Diane Arbus, his Beneath the Roses series, a body of work composed of twenty large-scaled photographs series has become a documentary directed and produced by Ben Shapiro.

“When we were shooting the documentary, I was never conscious of filming except for when I was location scouting. In a way, that is the most important part of the entire process—and the most private. I’m so used to doing that alone. Unlike every other part, it’s just me, alone, on location”.