Gregory Crewdson

Anthony O. Scott

Summary: While visiting Rome, world-renowned photographer Gregory Crewdson was invited to tour the legendary Italian film studio Cinecittà, where directors such as Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini shot their iconic works. He found the elaborate film sets had fallen into ruin and was captivated by their decaying beauty. He knew immediately that he had found his next project. While Crewdson's earlier series were enormously elaborate and required massive production crews, custom-built sound stages, and hired actors, he returned to Rome with only a small team and worked mostly with available lighting to create haunting black-and-white portraits of crumbling façades and deserted streets. However, all this does not really indicate a break with his earlier series, for the dramatic subtext so often found in his photographs, the uncanny feeling that they bring the past back to life, remains.

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