INFLUENCES - GREGORY CREWDSON

Gregory Crewdson, 2007

Before my project ever began, I was looking at many examples of Gregory Crewdson's work- mainly from his book 'Beneath the Roses' and his documentary 'Brief Encounters'. I really liked the style of his photographs, the cinematic effect they seemed to have and the dark, moody atmosphere the lighting created. These different aspects of his work lent themselves well to the application of stills from a proposed horror film, because a horror film would have a similar atmosphere.

Some of the photographs that I looked at, in particular, are as follows:

All of these photos have an element that I incorporated into my final photos.

PHOTOGRAPH 1

This photograph was one of the ones Crewdson used in his 2008 book, 'Beneath the Roses'.

It features a middle-aged woman in a grey skirt and yellow top holding a blue item of clothing. There is a car with one of its doors open behind her. In the background, a bright light can be seen in a small amount of mist. The setting of the photograph is in a suburban street with a large tree looming over it and a white panelled wooden house to the tree's right.

The lighting of the photo, and almost all of his others, is dark and creates a sombre atmosphere, which is further emphasised with the expression on the woman's face- one of sadness. This produces an engaging narrative behind the photo and provokes the viewer to ask questions regarding the photo- what could have happened?

The bright light in the background of the photo could have produced by a HMI lamp (Hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide lamp). These are often used in high-budget films or photo shoots to produce light of blinding quality. The fact that Gregory Crewdson uses this kind of expensive equipment is a testament to the fact that all his photo shoots are designed using a high-budget- a budget associated with many films. Because of this, all of Crewdson's photographs are completed with cinematographic visuals, which mean that a lot of his created photographs look a lot like film stills.
It was this kind of image that appealed to me when looking at Crewdson's work and this kind of image that I wanted to attempt to create for my final major project (FMP).

PHOTOGRAPH 2

The next photo I drew some inspiration from was this one.

It features a young girl sitting up in bed, with a middle-aged woman (presumably the girl's mother) lying in a bed adjacent to her. The setting is a dark, old-fashioned room with the dim light casting shadows all over the place- creating a very grim and moody atmosphere.

The shadows cast around the room, combined with the young girl, really create a creepy atmosphere.

The fact that the young girl has a completely blank expression on her face and is seemingly staring at the photographer suggests a creepy and eerie tone of the photo. It was this aspect of the photo that I drew inspiration from, primarily. The creepy aesthetic of the young girl in the photo would not be out of place in the horror story idea I had in mind for my FMP. I wanted to emulate this photo in my work.

PHOTOGRAPH 3

This photo was part of Gregory Crewdson's 'Beneath the Roses' as well.

It features a car with one of its doors open sitting in the middle of a road junction. There are some traffic lights off to the right-hand side of the photo and a shop of some sorts off to the left-hand side. In the background, there are more buildings and trees shrouded in a light mist. The sky is overcast with a tinge of purple, which creates light ambient light. There is a small circle of light, barely visible, spotlighting the vehicle.

The lightness of the photo is in contrast with most of the other untitled photographs in the same series as this one ('Beneath the Roses').

The small spotlight on the car emphasises the car as the main focus of the picture. It is unclear as to why someone as left the car in the middle of the road, but, again, this creates a narrative to the photo and raises intriguing questions as to the backstory of this photograph.

Although this photo is lighter than a lot of Crewdson's others, the photo is still dark, in the sense that there isn't a lot of colour in the photo. Most of the surroundings of the car, and the car itself, have a blue hue to them, indicating coldness. There is also ice on the part of road in the foreground of the photograph.

The main element of this photo that I drew some inspiration from was, ironically, one of the least important parts of the photo. I really liked the mist right at the back of the photo. I thought that if it was brought to the front of my photos it would help to create an eerie atmosphere. In this photo, it shrouded things around it, but there is a dark tree in the middle that the outline of which can still be seen. This makes the tree almost seem powerful, like viewers of action films can often see the main antagonist striding through fog which creates the same effect. I wanted to use this to make my main antagonist appear to have the same effect, as well as to accentuate certain features of the photo.

PHOTOGRAPH 4

This last Crewdson photo I drew inspiration from was this one.

It features a young woman sitting in a room full of flowers, however she is inside. There are several beams of light hitting the woman's face from the right-hand side of the photo.

This photo has far more colour than some of his other work, due to the number of flowers in the room.

The part of the photo that I wanted to emulate in my photos was the blank expression and the lighting of the room. The woman's face seems to be devoid of emotion, which would be good for the villain in my proposed story. As for the lighting, the way the light accentuates the young woman in the middle of the room, creates a cinematographic style to the photo.