Gregory Crewdson is one of my favorite photographic storytellers. He invites you into his exciting, sometimes melancholy, but always beautiful world, where you will fully immerse yourself in the scene. You can dive into the situation he created for you, or join the protagonist in your mind and imagine the next scene.
During the opening of his exhibition at LUMA Arles during the summer of 2023, I had the pleasure of seeing Crewdson live, and discovering more of his works on site. This month I am pleased to share additional information with you and wish you an enjoyable and exciting read.
Nadine Dinter: There is a saying that “every photographer has a story to tell”. Looking at your work, which spans over 30 years, you seem to have an ongoing, multi-part story to share with your audience. What do you think of this philosophy?
Gregory Crewdson : This is something I have said many times and I firmly believe in it. Each of us has our own way of seeing the world, with our own interests, likes and dislikes, desires, fears and personal history, and all of this adds up to a central story that we tell as artists. Over the course of our lives, we reinvent this story and perhaps look at it from different angles and through different lenses, but ultimately we often revolve around the same themes and try to express the things that seem most meaningful to us. more significant. for us. When I look at all the images in my retrospective exhibition and the accompanying book, I see all the ways my work has evolved over the decades, but I also see a strong similarity and common throughline. They're all part of the same story, in a sense.
You're famous for your brilliant storytelling, elaborate settings, and love of detailed settings. How do all these things begin and how do the different pieces like actors, locations, and sets come together? Do you work with cues and models, or do you instead refer to contexts you know in your “neighborhood” of Massachusetts and New York?
GC : THANKS. The whole process really starts with my traveling and scouting. I have favorite places that I visit, some that I have used more than once over the years. These places inspire my imagination and, in one way or another, seem formally interesting to me. This starts me off in the process of developing specific images. Once I have an idea coherent enough to be articulated, I call on Juliane and we start writing a description of the image which becomes a sort of “storyline”. This becomes the working document and instructions for everyone who will work on our production team, to communicate what the vision is. In terms of casting, this is primarily done in the towns or neighborhoods in Western Massachusetts where the pictures are set. There are sometimes exceptions, but these are often people you meet on the street, in stores or in various places around town.
In your images we see deserted places that we seem to recognize, even though they are devoid of any type of landmark, facade or billboard. Locations can be anywhere, even if they feel like “home,” as you once said. What is your house?
GC : I live in western Massachusetts, in the area where I take all the photos. I live in a former Methodist church and my studio is in what used to be the nearby town's fire station.
The people you include in your images seem out of place. They are sort of static – filled with despair, or at least, showing no emotion or action. In a way, we, the spectators, want to act, enter into this setting and bring the depicted situation to life. Is it your intention – to involve your audience – to make them understand how this “frozen moment” could be transformed into a “moving story?” »
GC : Absolutely, I want the viewer to bring to the images their own interpretation, their own deductions and their own vision of the world. Images potentially have different meanings and resonances for each of us. The picture is only complete when the viewer brings their own meaning to it.
In recent months, the Albertina Museum in Vienna has organized a major retrospective of your work. This comprehensive overview of your work featured well-known series such as Twilight (1998-2002) et Beneath the Roses (2003-2008), but also more recent works like Cathedral of the Pines (2013-2014), An Eclipse of Moths. (2018-2019) et Eveningside (2021-2022). What was your favorite feedback on this? Did the Austrian visitors perceive the works in a different way than, for example, the visitors from Arles, when you presented your photographs at LUMA in Arles during the summer of 2023?
GC : The exhibition in Vienna was much larger than that in Arles, which was a panorama of the last ten years. In Vienna, I had the opportunity to review the work of my entire career dating back to my graduate studies. It was a special experience to print the exhibition, go back to the negatives in many cases and be able to see all the images hung together in one place. I am very happy that the work is preserved in the permanent collection of the Albertina. Vienna is a beautiful city and it was a fantastic experience, especially working closely with Walter Moser, the curator of the exhibition.
Alongside this retrospective in Vienna mentioned above, you have also published a new book. Although the atmosphere, emotional patterns and overall energy reflect the works as they are displayed, these can be perceived differently, in part due to the smaller format of a book. How do you deal with this? Is there a way to organize such a book so that the impact remains the same?
GC : Seeing the images in a book is always a very different experience from seeing them on a large scale in a gallery. The viewer has a different relationship to the images. In a way, it's a more intimate and personal way of seeing the work. It also provides context to see the behind-the-scenes material and to read and understand more about how they were made. Of course, the level of detail of the images is very different in a book. It's just the nature of the format. But Walter did an incredible job with this book, and all of his decisions were very thoughtful and thoughtful. I am very happy with the book and all the fantastic writing.
Your works bear poetic and emotionally charged titles, such as “An Eclipse of Moths”, et “Cathedral of the Pines”. Do you consider yourself a visual poet, whose medium is images and not words?
GC : I'm not sure I've ever considered what I do as poetry, but I like that description. I've always struggled with words – I'm dyslexic and have never been a very good student. As soon as I discovered photography, I knew it was a language that made sense to me that I could use to communicate my stories. The series titles are intentionally oblique, but which I hope capture some sort of essence of the particular body of work.
When we read about your work, the names of other artists from various disciplines like David Lynch, Edward Hopper and Walker Evans are mentioned. Growing up, who were your idols or role models?
GC : The artists, musicians, authors and filmmakers I gravitated towards growing up are probably all the ones I still relate to the most, although I also feel very influenced by younger or more current generations of artists. There is a very long list of artists that I would consider role models from my childhood, but the ones you mention are certainly among them. One of the artists that really opened my eyes was Diane Arbus. My father took me to see his retrospective at MoMA when I was ten. I realized something about the power of images that truly shaped my understanding of photography as a medium, from a very young age.
What's next for you? (new exhibition, new project, new cooperation or something else?)
GC : The retrospective will continue to run. In the meantime, I'm in the early stages of an upcoming job.
What advice would you give to emerging photographers?
GC : No one else can tell your special story – it's yours alone. Stay true to this, it is the most precious thing one owns.
Current exhibitions:
The Albertina exhibition will travel to other major museums and these future locations will be announced soon.
A personal exhibition entitled Gregory Crewdson : Picture Window is now visible at the Espace Louis Vuitton Munich, until February 22, 2025.
In addition, the exhibition previously held at LUMA in Arles, a survey from the Gallerie d'Italia Turin entitled Eveningsideorganized by Jean-Charles Vergne, was inaugurated on October 25 at the National Museum of Photography in Marubi in Albania, until January. 19, 2025.
About the book:
Gregory Crewdson
Edited by Walter Moser
Published by Prestel: August 15, 2024
Hardcover, 280 pages, 9 2/5 x 11 4/5 in, 318 color illustrations
60,00 $, ISBN : 978-3-7913-7738-4
For more information, check out the artist’s IG account @crewdsonstudio
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