"Twilight"
Photographs by Gregory Crewdson
Upon first discovering Crewdsons work, I was particularly interested in the techniques used to construct his images. This is especially true in his collection of photographs in the "twilight" series. Crewdsons method is to build fabricated set-ups in constructed environments, often using lighting associated with the film industry. This gives his images an incredible sense of drama and an intriguing narrative emerges from his work.
The Twilight series addresses a number of issues often seen in Crewdsons work. Aside from his usual themes, Twilight also creates some interesting questions relating to suburbia and the "normality" we often associate with the domestic environment. His images are often shot indoors, however a strong sense of an almost artificial natural world emerges - Over saturated, bold greenery is placed inside the domestic living room, for example. We know this is out of place and doesn't fit however Crewdsons "characters" interact with the natural elements in a very familiar way.
This unnatural vs natural is an incredibly strong theme in the Twilight series. His images combine many opposites to question the reality of the shot - beauty vs horror, real vs surreal and familiar vs unknown. Even the familiar domestic landscape is challenged by the viewer seeing under the floorboards and into the unknown. The thing I truly love about Crewdsons images in the Twilight series are the questions they raise. I have an almost insatiable desire to know what is the story behind the shot. Why does the young girl look longingly into the school bus to the waving gentleman? Who is the woman in the flooded house and what has happened to her? The highly theatrical nature of the constructed film-set style environments would be engaging in most images, however Crewdson uses light in a such a sensitive way that only intensifies the drama within the frame. His work continues to be a great inspiration to me and is perfectly subtle look into surrealism and our desire to question our reality.
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