PHOTO:Gregory Crewdson

In his 20 years of work, the photographs of Gregory Crewdson have garnered an international following. Each series: “Twilight”, “Dream House” and “Beneath the Roses” recalls not only 19th Century American and European paintings, but also suggest a cinematic quality that was influenced by his love of vintage films. But his new exhibition transcends to a darker psychological place, exploring themes of isolation and longing.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Daniel Templon Archive

Gregory Crewdson’s first experience of photography, at the age of ten, was a Diane Arbus retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He graduated with an MFA in photography from Yale University in 1988. For his thesis project, he took photographic portraits of residents of the area around Lee, Massachusetts, where his family had a cabin. It was also in Lee that Crewdson conceived of his later “Natural Wonder series” (1992–97), in which birds, insects, and mutilated body parts are presented in surreal yet mundane domestic settings. In his next series, “Hover” (1995–97), Crewdson turned away from brightly colored close-ups to black-and-white bird’s-eye views of strange set in the streets and backyards of Lee. His series “Twilight” (1998–2001) and “Beneath the Roses” (2004–08) introduced color and an enlarged scale to this surreal formula, resulting in decidedly cinematic images reminiscent of the films of Steven Spielberg. These photographs have become increasingly spectacular and complex to produce, requiring dozens of assistants, Hollywood-style lighting, and specially crafted stage sets. In 2011 he left New York to live to a remote home and studio in western Massachusetts. Coping with a difficult divorce, he found renewal in daily open-water swims and cross-country skiing on the wooded paths of the Appalachian Trail. There, he stumbled upon a trail called Cathedral of the Pines, which inspired new images. The series “Cathedral of the Pines” was made during three productions in and around the rural town of Becket, Massachusetts. Crewdson photographed figures in the surrounding forests, including the actual trail from which the series takes its title. Interior scenes charged with ambiguous narratives probe tensions between art, life, connection and separation, intimacy and isolation. The series comprises 31 digital pigment prints and Crewdson situates his disconsolate subjects in familiar settings, yet their cryptic actions, standing still in the snow, or nude on a riverbank, hint at invisible challenges. Precisely what these challenges are, and what fate awaits these anonymous figures, are left to the viewer’s imagination.

Info: Gallerie Daniel Templon, Veydtstraat 13A, Brussels, Duration: 8/9-29/10/16 Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00 and Gallerie Daniel Templon, 30 rue Beaubourg, Paris, Duration: 10/9-29/10/16 Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-19:00, www.danieltemplon.com