Gregory Crewdson | Eveningside

photo: © Gregory Crewdson - Madeline's Beauty Salon, 2021-2022 - Courtesy Reflex Amsterdam

With the exhibition Eveningside Reflex Amsterdam presented the latest work by American photographer Gregory Crewdson, internationally known for cinematic, intriguing photographs staged down to the smallest detail.

In Eveningside (2021-2022), Crewdson explores moments of contemplation within the constraints of everyday life; at workplaces and at times just outside those work structures.

The characters in the photos are sparse and often seen through store windows, in mirror reflections or positioned in the middle of their daily routine at a railway bridge, doorway, veranda, bank, beauty salon, supermarket or on the street in American suburbs.

The photographer moves the viewpoint closer to his characters and plays with light and darkness. Special effects—including fog, rain, smoke, and haze—together with an extensive production and lighting crew create a monochrome palette. The result is a rich Gothic atmosphere reminiscent of film noir and classic movies, but with the possibilities and clarity of the most current technology in digital photography. Eveningside comprises twenty digital pigment prints measuring 87.6 x 116.8 cm.

With his feature film-like methodology he tells a story in one image. Photography and film are brought together.

‍Gregory Crewdson (1962) was born in Brooklyn, New York. He trained at SUNY Purchase and Yale School of Art, where he is currently a professor of photography.

Crewdson has worked as a visual artist for more than thirty years and has exhibited at leading galleries and museums worldwide, including MoMA in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Gallerie d’Italia in Turin, and Fotomuseum Den Haag. His feature-film-like process tells a story in a single image, bringing photography and cinema together.

Crewdson's extensive and widely acclaimed oeuvre includes Natural Wonder (1992-1997), Twilight (1998-2002), Dream House (2002), Beneath the Roses (2003-2008), Cathedral of the Pines (2013-2014), An Eclipse of Moths (2018-2019) and Eveningside (2021-2022), for which a book of the same name was later published. The series Beneath the Roses, with a crew of over a hundred people, is the subject of the documentary Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters from 2012.

During the exhibition, Reflex Amsterdam also presented a selection of photographs from the series at its second venue, Reflex, the Residence: Beneath the Roses and Cathedral of the Pines.

Gregory Crewdson | EveningsideMarch 11, 2023 - May 6, 2023
Reflex Amsterdam