Sanctuary

by Gregory Crewdson (Photographer), A.O. Scott

While visiting Rome, world-renowned photographer Gregory Crewdson was invited to tour the legendary film studio Cinecittà, where directors such as Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini shot their iconic works. He found the elaborate film sets fallen into ruin and, captivated by their beauty, chose them as the subject of his next body of work. Although his earlier series were characterized by large production crews, custom-built soundstages, and hired actors, Crewdson returned to Rome with only a small team to create the haunting black-and-white portraits of deteriorating buildings and deserted streets that are flawlessly reproduced in this book. Admirers of Crewdson’s work will find these new photographs are a bold departure, which yet convey the dramatic subtext and charged emotions that characterize his earlier works.

Genres: Photography, Art, Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

Gregory Crewdson’s photographs have entered the American visual lexicon, taking their place alongside the paintings of Edward Hopper and the films of Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch as indelible evocations of a silent psychological interzone between the everyday and the uncanny. Often working with a large team, Crewdson typically plans each image with meticulous attention to detail, orchestrating light, color, and production design to conjure dreamlike scenes infused with mystery and suspense. While the small-town settings of many of Crewdson’s images are broadly familiar, he is careful to avoid signifiers of identifiable sites and moments, establishing a world outside time.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Crewdson is a graduate of SUNY Purchase and the Yale University School of Art, where he is now director of graduate studies in photography. He lives and works in New York and Massachusetts. In a career spanning more than three decades, he has produced a succession of widely acclaimed bodies of work, from Natural Wonder (1992–97) to Cathedral of the Pines (2013–14). Beneath the Roses (2003–08), a series of pictures that took nearly ten years to complete—and which employed a crew of more than one hundred people—was the subject of the 2012 feature documentary Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, by Ben Shapiro.

Reviews

[emanumela · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Zioluc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Crewdson per una volta abbandona i suoi costruitissimi set paracinematografici con luci artificiali, scenografi, costumisti ed attori per fotografare i set scalcinati di Cinecittà. Scalcinati al punto da essere obbligato dalla proprietà a specificare che le immagini riprendono i luoghi volutamente trasandati e sporchi per volontà dell'autore, che ha voluto che non si facesse pulizia.
Colpiscono le immagini più nebbiose, come sempre l'autore gioca su verità e finzione ma come per altri suoi lavori mi sono annoiato già dalla terza tavola.