We all know that cinema had a recognizable influence on still photography work. Many photographers acknowledged influence of another art on their practice and with the influence of the cinema on photography it will always be the still versus the moving picture. There are always questions asked such as why have cinema and photography been so drawn to each other? The two are linked in many ways. They share some principles such as exposure, composition, lighting and colour. The job of both is story telling with the camera.
Take Gregory Crewdson and his work of art. He’s best known for elaborately staged, surreal scenes. His cinema like photography hovers between fact and fiction. He creates what he calls ‘frozen moments’. Operating on a large scale, he uses a big crew to shoot and then develop the images during post production. All of this activity is to make a single photograph. Every detail of his images is planned and staged, in particularly the lighting. Dealing with the lighting is one of his major tasks. Crewdson’s method is equally filmic, building elaborate sets to take pictures of extraordinary detail and narrative content.
What is it about Crewdson’s image of small town American life? It is a movie scale process that Crewdson has attracted criticism for in the past. As the viewer, what do you see in his photographs and how do you feel when looking at them?
This photograph from a series ‘Beneath the Roses’ is so haunting, with obsessive attention to detail. And unlike film, his photographs capture isolated moments with no past and no future, playing to photography’s narrative strength.