Twilight: Photographs by Gregory Crewdson

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In a 2020 interview for his book Alone Street, Cate Blanchett asks Crewdson about the “profound sense of waiting” that many of his subjects share. His photographs depict scenes of anxiety and dislocation: his subjects often appear preoccupied or caught in transition, and are always photographed at twilight, in the gloaming where artists often find inspiration.

But something starts to make you feel uneasy, it's un-nerving and you find you have to look for longer, taking in all the surreal dreamlike and, often, haunting visions. Even the staged moments themselves are not quite climactic – instead suggesting pause, transition or aftermath. Suburbia sits at the boundary between the natural world and the city; ambiguous, un-modern objects and cars shirk straightforward associations; windows and thresholds become focal points as portals between public and private space; paranormal (or seemingly so) occurrences soften the edges of reality; the 'magic hour' of twilight marries natural and artificial illumination with a promise of darkness to come. Born in Brooklyn in 1962, Crewdson’s work and aesthetic are influenced heavily by Diane Arbus, David Lynch, and Japanese silent film director Yasujiro Ozu. As smartphones and artificial intelligence make photography easier and easier, Crewdson makes it as difficult as he possibly can.Twilight features a series of photographs that depict scenes of bizarre and unusual events with several of them appearing supernatural-like or even involving potential signs of extra-terrestrial life. Framed by a picture window, a lone man is viewed ascending a magnificent flowering vine that has mysteriously erupted from the front lawn of a nocturnal suburban street. In different ways, their work questions and challenges photography's relationship to truth while simultaneously depending on photography's ability to faithfully record and document.

The second chapter focuses on Crewdson's use o f the window, as both a self-referencing device used to highlight the intrinsic nature o f photography and also as a site where voyeurism is emphasized. The scenes of Twilight are created in collaboration with a large production crew, and the members of a small suburban community. I’m revisiting this picture on the 25th Anniversary of Twilight because, as my first street scene of this kind, it has become very important in my iconography and visual language. Twilight and many other works by Gregory Crewdson highlight the mystery and beauty that exists in everyday life.

Gregory Crewdson - Twilight series, by churchwood on Nov 16, 2023 16:46:03 GMT 1, I got given Twilight in hardback a few years ago - the amount of work that goes into each picture is immense. Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan Republic, Belarus, Benin, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Channel Islands, Comoros, Cook Islands, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Fiji, French Polynesia, Gabon Republic, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Greenland, Guam, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, India, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Puerto Rico, Republic of the Congo, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Venezuela, Virgin Islands (U. Writing in the Guardian a few years ago, the author Rick Moody made much of Crewdson's upbringing as the son of a Freudian psychoanalyst living in an ordinary Massachusetts town. J’ai l’impression que l’artiste a retenu la leçon à la vue de la magnifique édition de son œuvre « Beneath the roses », c’est bien dommage pour celle-ci en tout cas. The book includes 40 untitled photographs (plates) which are all seemingly shot at 'Twilight' which he says is an evocative time for the 'movement of transition between before and after' which is what the shots are about.