Twilight: Photographs by Gregory Crewdson

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Although Crewdson has described himself as an ‘an American realist landscape photographer’, he makes filmic images that strongly reference TV programmes such as The Twilight Zone or films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind that deal with fantasy and the paranormal. In this series of intensely, almost luridly coloured and exuberantly detailed images, Crewdson employs a cinematic, directorial mode of photography, the culmination of weeks of planning and complicated, behind-the-scenes production. A limited-edition book with a text by Jeff Tweedy, published in a series of 750 signed copies, will be released by Aperture to coincide with the exhibition. Crewdson works very closely with his DP, Director of Photography and only uses continuous lights on his projects. Post-Historical Narrative in Contemporary Photography, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, USA The series takes its title from an entomological term. Moths use transverse orientation to fly at a constant angle relative to a distant light source, such as the moon; exposure to artificial light confuses the insects’ internal navigation, changing their behavior and destination. Crewdson anchors his photographic figures in relation to a source of light: a street lamp or traffic light, or the hesitant, transitional illumination of twilight. In each image, the viewer is positioned above in a semi bird’s-eye vantage point.

Archivo Pons Artxiboa, Erakusketa - Exposicion, 45.zk.No.45, Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea, San Sebastian, Spain In 1992, Gregory Crewdson held his solo exhibition at the Houston Center for Photography and in 1997 at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art. In 1998, he exhibited at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and appeared in numerous group shows throughout the 1990s and 2000s.In 2012, Crewdson was also the subject of a documentary film by Ben Shapiro called Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, which debuted at the South by Southwest Film Festival. To date, Crewdson has exhibited three times at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum with many works and prints in the collection of art museums like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

By the late 1980s, Crewdson had abandoned real-life situations to create still life and dioramas of natural environments, which he built in his studio and then photographed. Themes of alienation, the unknown, and a disconnect between the photographer and subject are ongoing elements of Gregory Crewdson’s photography. The Disturbance is one such image that evokes a sense of uncertainty and tension through the depiction of an icy landscape visible through large windows, of which one is made aware of the sense of vulnerability in the woman facing the windows. Imperfect Innocence, The Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection, Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth, USA My favorite photographer is sort of not a photographer. Perhaps less of one if a photographer captures spontaneous reality, more than one if a photographer just takes pictures. Gregory Crewdson creates tableaux vivants not of mythical scenes or famous paintings, but of enigmatic disruptions of everyday North American life.

Behind Closed Doors, Collectors Celebrate The Museum's Golden Anniversary, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, USA What I am interested in is that moment of transcendence, where one is transported into another place, into a perfect, still world.

Crewdson’s photographs take place in quotidian environments where domestic occurrences and other everyday events are played out for the camera. These narratives occur at twilight, the magic hour where ordinary routines can undergo enigmatic transformations. This collision between the normal and the paranormal produce a tension that serves to transform the topology of the suburban landscape into a place of wonder and anxiety. Born in Brooklyn in 1962, Crewdson’s work and aesthetic are influenced heavily by Diane Arbus, David Lynch, and Japanese silent film director Yasujiro Ozu. In particular, David Lynch’s work Blue Velvet 1 was of particular interest to him having encountered it during his studies at Yale. Gregory Crewdson with his 8×10 camera The Twilight series In Crewdson's photographs a collision between the normal and the paranormal exists which serves to transform the familiar suburban landscape into a place of wonder and anxiety. This series of images has become increasingly dark, penetrating the psychological disquiet at the heart of the American family. In one image, we see a teenage girl standing in the street in just her underwear with shoulders hunched and head hanging low, confronted and shamed by her mother's accusatory and disappointed gaze. In another, a pregnant girl dressed in a nightdress stands in a garden that is bathed in the golden light emitted by a swarm of fireflies. Staring at something beyond the picture frame, she crushes a firefly into her rounded stomach. Gregory Crewdson’s photographs of suburban America, immaculately staged and often filled with a sense of isolation, have forever changed the language of contemporary photography. Crewdson first began to photograph suburban life while working on his Master of Fine Arts thesis at Yale University between 1986 and 1988, asking residents from the nearby town of Lee, Massachusetts to participate in a series of theatrically composed genre scenes.

Twilight

Still, at a certain time, toward nightfall on certain days of the year, Crewdson is obliged to make pictures. His apparent composure and good nature is sorely tested on set, he says. As the light fades, there are often problems - with neighbours, the weather, unexpected interruptions. "I never think we're going to make it," he says. Settings and Players: Theatrical Ambiguity in American Photography, White Cube, London, England and The City Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic

We Love Painting, The American Contempororay Art from Misumi Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan 2002 New Work 6: Gregory Crewdson, Twilight, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, USA (solo) This area of pristine terrain has served as a retreat for Crewdson throughout his career and provided him with a model of American life. Finding his Style Contemporary American Photography 1970-2000, From the Collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Samsung Museum of Modern Art, Seoul, Korea He credits seeing a Diane Arbus exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, taken by his psychoanalyst father at the age of 10, as sparking the first moment when he decided to become a photographer. The thing that people just don’t quite ever completely understand is that the process started off very organically. It started off slowly, and the small group became a larger group. Then slowly but surely, we put together a team over the years, and suddenly you’re working with a crew. For me, this is the way I know how to make pictures. Gregory CrewdsonBetween 1998 and 2001, Gregory Crewdson made a color series titled, Twilight. The images reminded viewers of Steven Spielberg‘s films. His recent photography reflects an increasingly complex, detailed and extravagant sets with lighting as done in Hollywood. Gregory Crewdson’s art can best be described as spooky and unnerving. Often featuring inexplicable and disturbing events, his photographs closely resemble images that you would see in a paranormal feature film. Operating on a grand scale, Gregory relies on help from a large crew to shoot his staged scenes. The photographs are then edited during post-production. Onset with the Crewdson crew Gregory Crewdson – Untitled (Penitent Daughter) from Twilight, 2001-2002 Crewdson’s style