Gregory Crewdson

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Gregory Crewdson (born September 26, 1962) is an American photographer<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> who makes large-scale, cinematic, psychologically charged prints of staged scenes set in suburban landscapes and interiors. He directs a large production and lighting crew to construct his images.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life and education

Crewdson in 2007

Crewdson was born in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. As a child, he attended Brooklyn Friends School, and then John Dewey High School.

As a teenager, he was part of a power pop group called Speedies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Their song "Let Me Take Your Photo" was used in 2005 by Hewlett-Packard in advertisements to promote its digital cameras.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Crewdson attended Purchase College, State University of New York, where he initially planned to study psychology.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At Purchase, he enrolled in a photography course taught by Laurie Simmons<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and also studied with Jan Groover.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He received an MFA in photography from the Yale School of Art.<ref>Gregory Crewdson Biography. Rogallery.com. Retrieved November 17, 2011.</ref>

Life and work

Crewdson is a professor and the director of graduate studies in photography at Yale School of Art.<ref>Yale University School of Art: Gregory Crewdson. Art.yale.edu. Retrieved November 17, 2011.</ref>

File:Gregory Crewdson untitled photo.jpg

Untitled photo from Crewdson's series Beneath the Roses (2003–2008)

Crewdson's photographs are elaborately planned, produced, and lit using crews familiar with motion picture production who light large scenes using cinema production equipment and techniques.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He works with a lighting team, art director, make-up and wardrobe department, props and effects to create mood, atmosphere, and open-ended narrative images.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> He has worked with the same director of photography, Richard Sands, along with other core team members, for some 25 years.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He works much like a director with a budget similar to that of a movie production,<ref name=":0" /> each image involves dozens of people and weeks to months of planning.<ref name=":1" />

Using shots that resemble film productions, Crewdson deconstructs American suburban life in his work.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He has cited the films Vertigo, The Night of the Hunter, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blue Velvet, and Safe as having influenced his style,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as the painter Edward Hopper<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and photographer Diane Arbus.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Crewdson's most widely-known bodies of work include Twilight (1998–2002), Beneath the Roses (2003–2008), Cathedral of the Pines (2013–2014), An Eclipse of Moths (2018–2019),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Eveningside (2021–2022). Crewdson's only body of work made outside of the U.S. was Sanctuary (2009), set at the Cinecittá studios in Rome.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Nearly all of his other work before and since was made in the small towns and cities in Western Massachusetts.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2012, he was the subject of the feature documentary film Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The film series followed the construction of and an explanation by Crewdson of his thought process and vision for pieces of Beneath the Roses.

Personal life

As of 2020, Crewdson lives primarily in western Massachusetts in a former Methodist church.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His long time partner, Juliane Hiam,<ref name=":2" /> is a writer and producer,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the two work closely together.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Hiam has also appeared as a subject in numerous of Crewdson's pictures.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Crewdson has two children from a previous marriage.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Crewdson is an open-water swimmer<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and has said that the meditative state he achieves with his daily swimming practice is fundamental to his creative process as an artist.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Publications

• Twilight: Photographs by Gregory Crewdson. Harry N. Abrams, 2002. Template:ISBN. With an essay by Rick Moody.
• Fireflies. Skarstedt Fine Art, 2007. Template:ISBN.
• Beneath the Roses. With Russell Banks. Harry N. Abrams, 2008. Template:ISBN.
• Dream House. With text by Tilda Swinton. John Rule, 2009. Template:ISBN.
• Sanctuary. With Anthony O. Scott. Hatje Cantz, 2010. Template:ISBN.
• Cathedral of the Pines. New York: Aperture, 2016. Template:ISBN. With a text by Alexander Nemerov.
• An Eclipse of Moths. New York: Aperture, 2020. Template:ISBN. With an introduction by Jeff Tweedy.
• Gregory Crewdson: Eveningside, 2012–2022. Milan: Skira Editore, 2022. Template:ISBN. Text by Jean-Charles Vergne.

Collections

• Hover. Artspace Books, 1995. Template:ISBN.
• Dream of Life. Ed.Salamanca, D.Steinke,B.Morrow , 1999. Template:ISBN
• Gregory Crewdson: 1985–2005. Hatje Cantz, 2005. Template:ISBN.
• In a Lonely Place. Hatje Cantz, 2011. Template:ISBN.
• Gregory Crewdson. New York: Rizzoli, 2013. Template:ISBN.
• Alone Street. New York: Aperture, 2021. Template:ISBN. With an essay by Joyce Carol Oates and an interview with the artist by Cate Blanchett.
• Gregory Crewdson. Munich, London, New York: Prestel, 2024. Template:ISBN. Edited by Walter Moser, with texts by David Fincher, Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat, Beate Hofstadler, Astrid Mahler, Watler, Moser, Matthieu Orléan, and Emily St. John Mandel.

Awards

• Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer's Fellowship<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Skowhegan Medal for Photography, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Skowhegan Medal for Photography<ref>Skowhegan Awards Honorees. Retrieved September 20, 2020.</ref>
• National Endowment for the Arts fellowship<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Honorary Doctorate, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Honorary Doctorate, SUNY Purchase, NY.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Distinguished Artist Award, St. Botolph Club Foundation, Boston, MA.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Collections

Crewdson's work is held in the permanent collections of major institutions worldwide, including:

• Albertina Museum, Vienna<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• The Broad, Los Angeles<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• The Getty Museum, Los Angeles<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York<ref name="met">Template:Cite web</ref>
• Museum of Modern Art, New York<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Whitney Museum, New York<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Films about Crewdson

• Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters (2012) – feature documentary directed, produced, and shot by Ben Shapiro<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• There But Not There (2017) – short documentary about Crewdson's casting process, directed by Juliane Hiam<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Making Eveningside (2022) – short interpretive documentary directed by Harper Glantz, set to original music by Stuart Bogie and James Murphy (electronic musician) about the making of Eveningside