Gregory Crewdson: 1985-2005: 1985 - 2005 (E/ G) - Hardcover

Gregory Crewdson's photographic series capture a particularly American state of normalcy--in dissolution. The viewer, at first seduced by what appears to be an idyllic scene, soon discovers subtle off-kilter elements more akin to Film Noir than an NBC comedy. In a work from his Twilight series, yellow school buses are parked outside white wooden houses, and students stand and lounge around in seeming passivity. Something is happening--what, we don't know. The vision is familiar yet unfamiliar, seemingly benign yet threatening. Crewdson goes to great lengths in dramatizing his disturbing suburban scenes, employing elaborate lighting, cranes, props and extras, espousing a level of behind-the-scenes preparation more akin to the making of a Hollywood movie than the making of a still image. Here perhaps is one place to locate the eerie unreality and narrativity of his pictures, the creepy attention to detail so out of place, in the ordinary settings he evokes. Middle-class reality meets the other side of the normal here--by way of Sigmund Freud.

All of Gregory Crewdson's great photographs in one volume - including his latest series, Beneath the Roses. In his photographs, Gregory Crewdson (born in 1962 in Brooklyn, New York) presents artfully condensed stories that essentially deal with the penetration of the mysterious into normalcy. In an image from his Twilight series (1998-2002), we see yellow school buses parked outside white wooden houses. Groups of students stand or lie around passively in different places. An idyllic scene, but only at first glance, as the image seems oddly "uncanny" in the Freudian sense. It shows something familiar yet unsettling, different, and somewhat inexplicable. What is really happening here? Crewdson goes to great lengths in dramatizing his disturbing suburban scenes, employing means more typical of Hollywood film productions. Using elaborate lighting, cranes, props, and extras, he stages his scenes, which are at the same time always an accurate portrayal of everyday life in America, with obsessive attention to detail. This publication is the first to assemble all of the artist's photographic productions in a single volume and includes his most recent, previously unpublished series Beneath the Roses.