Gregory Crewdson

Twilight Series, 1998 - 2002

Twilight Series 1998 - 2002

 Over the past week I have been heavily looking at the work of well-known American photographer Gregory Crewdson after finding him when I was studying for my A-levels. I became almost fixated on how he took such fascinating and paranormal shots of suburban America with the use of artificial lighting and using his well-publicized love of the ‘twilight hour’.

  I first came across him again when looking through the library just for inspiration I looked at Twilight a set of forty photos displayed in a book accompanied with an essay by Rick Moody; I chose to spend a lot of time really looking at a few of photos trying to gain more knowledge on how he shot them but until I got to the back of his book and really began to fixate upon how they were shot I was engrossed on how such large scale expensive shoots created such amazing photographs.

  Amongst my favorites is a photo of a woman sat in her kitchen on a flower bed its simple but evokes such weird imagery its almost like she is possessed. I think the wonder and forced artificial lighting really makes it perfect for this staged distance he creates from reality.

Twilight Series 1998 - 2002

When you see the effort, direction and money that Crewdson applies to his sets you cannot believe he hasn’t made a film; but the appearance of these stills that he has made from these sets is put into perspective of how an average town in America has been changed by one mans mind and fascination with a very natural light form and enhanced by artificial lighting. 

www.vam.ac.uk/content/article/p/gregory-crewdson/

  Crewdson, G., 2002. Twilight. New York: Abrams. 

Picasso Light Painting.

  This is just a quick one on something I thought was really interesting; Light painting is when you use a source of light in an otherwise dark setting and this creates bright light streaks.  

  One famous artist who used light painting was Pablo Picasso during the 1940's so Gjon Mili, a freelance photographer of the time visited Picasso and whilst showing several artists some of his light patterns Picasso grabbed a small flashlight and produced similar light patterns but he then allowed Mili to photograph and do a short collaboration of images of Greek profiles and beasts of lasting around 30 drawings he could keep from the session. The effect was created by Mili keeping the shutter open on his camera and captured the light paintings with a 1/10,000 second strobe light.

  Here are some of the images from the shoot:

Picasso light painting original shoot, Gjon Mili

  Here are some more examples of work I have been looking at other light painting:

Marko 93

  After looking at several famous images of light painting by Picasso I decided to do my own of simple red fair lights and moving them around with my Nikon and they came out very successful so I decided to include them as a means of experimentation. I didn't make images as such but more light trails just to see what light and effects I could capture.

Image One of my own, Heart

Image two, Fairy

http://fadedandblurred.com/blog/picasso-painting-with-light/

(images from Picasso collected from above)

Irina Werning ; Back To The Future

Niko 1986 & 2010 Buenos Aires

  Irina Werning did a project in recent years which I really like and would like to do something similar to in the future. They are sets of old photos with the modern equivalent compared beside. They are identical photographs just one is modern and one is old. They are really interesting with the likeness but the difference's make them yet more fascinating and because I am also fascinated with what people used to look like and look like now its a lovely nosy little project with great results.
  Here are some of her photos;

Tommy 1977 & 2010 Buenos Aires

Lulu Geraldine 1980 & 2010 Buenos Aires

http://irinawerning.com/back-to-the-fut/back-to-the-future/