My sophmore year at college, I attended a trip to the Mass MoCA with the Art Dept. The showcased exhibit was Gregory Crewdson's Twilight photographs. I had never heard of him before, and certainly wouldn't have called myself too much a fan of contemporary art. But, with him, I was enthralled!
His photos are of suburban American life, but are very surreal: creepy. I actually hadn't realized they were photographs until after the third or fourth one; I assumed they were realistic paintings - they couldn't have been photographs, they were too involved to have been staged on an ordinary street (I thought). They are large-scale staged photographs. And, they're often called 'production stills' because he approaches them much like a director to a film set. The lighting in each one is probably the most stunning part, but it's the scenes that make them stand out.
Above:
Untitled, Winter 2005
Digital C-print
(Vanity from Beneath the Roses)
And
Detail
Untitled, Winter 2005
(Vanity from Beneath the Roses)
64.25" x 94.25"
Below:
Untitled, 2001
Digital C-print
(Ophelia from Twilight)
48" x 60"





