Gregory Crewdson case study.

Photography Case Study 1.

Gregory Crewdson.

  

                      

Gregory crewdson is an American photographer who's photographs are usually elaborate sets and staged greatly like films, creating what he calls 'frozen moments'.

Gregory's father who was a psychoanalyst was a great influence in his life and work, he says that it was his key development and understanding of life which shaped his idea of revealing secrets in everyday life. Films are an important influence on crewdson, his top influential films are; vertigo, blue velvet and close encounters with the third kind (which is why his photographs give a sci-fi feel). Director David Lynch is a major influence on Gregory's work seeing as he is the director of Blue Velvet. 

Gregory works in a very modern world where science fiction can become a reality in some cases, the historical context of his work is that his photographs are influenced by retro and old films i.e: Blue Velvet (1986) and Close Encounters with the Third Kind (1977). The social contextual side of his work is that the 'subjects' in his photographs are not models or celebrities that are 'now in' or major in the public eye, he uses local members of the public, he says 'im always drawn to normal people', the subjects he likes to use have a 'ghost like' quality who "carry a sense of regret and sadness with them"

Crewdson creates his photographs by giving a sense of narrative, his photographs tell a story, even though his pictures are not moving you can still feel the cinematic glow that it is trying to convey, feeling like its a still from a movie scene. the way he creates the low lit photographs is by shooting at his favourite time of the day: 'twilight' which creates a misty setting. his main material that he uses in his photo shoots is light, he always tries to create narrative and a meaning through his use of light. the process of one of his shoots consists of around 40 people spending days setting up for one single shot, his lighting is suspended from cranes and hidden fog machines are used. to find locations he will drive around cities and neighbourhoods searching for a good place, he says that if its weird that will be his location.