Hyper-real, theatrical, filmic – these are just some of the labels attributed to the artworks of American photographer Gregory Crewdson, whose elaborately styled images form part of Crewdson’s exhibition In a Lonely Place, which is currently on show at the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne.
In a Lonely Place comprises works from three different Crewdson collections – Beneath the Roses, Sanctuary and Fireflies.
Crewdson is best known for the intricately composed and manipulated images found in Beneath the Roses, photographic stories that are suspended in the spaces between truth and fantasy, and works that have earned him international acclaim.
It took seven years for Crewdson to complete Beneath the Roses, a series of ambitious large-scale photographs that were shot on the scale of a blockbuster film complete with sound stages, production crews, actors, make-up artists, set designers et al. The images in Beneath the Roses are constructed so that on first view they appear nothing more than a statement on the banality of life in the American suburbs. But take a closer look and Crewdson’s signature style – the hyper-real lighting, the meticulous placement of the smallest object, the almost mannequin-like composition of the characters, the use of intense color and the empty spaces – evokes an unsettling realization that not all is as it seems and the tensions within these complex, multi-layered images begin to emerge.
Sanctuary, which made its debut in 2010, was a departure from Crewdson’s signature style, and comprises images of Rome’s crumbling Cinecittà film studios where Federico Fellini filmed the classic La Dolce Vita. These works show the inevitable return of stone and wooden structures to the earth. With the diffused tone of the black and white images the former majesty of this once vibrant film studio is relegated to the ruins of Rome. Shot on high-end digital, a departure for Crewdson, he said these images were intentionally styled to appear as the most “classical photographs I’ve ever made”.
Fireflies, which captures the ethereal nature of these insects as they leave their glowing trails in the night air, is perhaps the least interesting work in this exhibition, but that is only because the photographs that precede them are so extraordinary and captivating.
In a Lonely Place is presented by the Melbourne International Festival, the Centre for Contemporary Photography and the Institute for Modern Art, Brisbane, and is on until 11 November at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, 404 George Street, Fitzroy.
Alison Stieven-Taylor
In a Lonely Place – Gregory Crewdson
until November 11th, 2012
Centre for Contemporary Photography
404 George Street, Fitzroy
VIC 3065, Australia
