In a Lonely Place

The American middle-class nightmare: nothing is clean, orderly, idyllic, or romantic. In his perfectly staged, hyper-realistic tableaux, photographer Gregory Crewdson (*1962) reveals the claustrophobic limbo and abyss of spiritual repression that is the typical suburb. Here, hushed-up violence, alienation, isolation, and emptiness are nothing new or unfamiliar but part of the everyday experience next door. Crewdson goes to great lengths to set up his apocalyptic scenarios. The richness of detail and mysterious atmosphere of the images from his series Beneath the Roses unfold a surreal, supernatural power of suggestion that mesmerizes the viewer. No less arresting are the works from Sanctuary, shot in the morbid ruins of Italy’s Cinecittà, and the unusual nocturne nature photos in Fireflies.