Period 3 -- Critical Analysis #21

4/27/2017

For your final critical analysis, you will be writing about a photograph made by artist Gregory Crewdson.

Write 5 paragraphs, 5 sentences minimum per paragraph. Remember, refer to your "How to See" handout for analyzing a photograph--

Describe specifics.
Describe form.
Describe the content.
Evaluate the image.

Read this short biography for Crewdson before you write:

Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer best known for staging cinematic scenes of suburbia to dramatic effect. His surreal images are often melancholic or disturbing, offering ambiguous narrative suggestions and blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality, thanks to the artist’s painstaking preparation of elaborate sets, lighting, and cast. “My pictures are about a search for a moment—a perfect moment,” Crewdson has explained. Born on September 26, 1962 in Brooklyn, NY, the artist works with large production teams to scout and shoot his images. His work has been exhibited widely, notably including solo exhibitions at Gagosian Gallery in New York, the San Diego Museum of Art, and White Cube in London, among many others. A 1988 graduate of the Yale School of Art, he has served on its faculty since 1993 and is currently the director of its graduate studies in photography. The artist lives and works in New York, NY.

Nick Perez

4/27/2017 08:32:19 am

Gregory Crewdson's work is very dramatic and thought provoking. He uses the element of mystery to capture the interest of the viewer that he is targeting. In this image, the subject of the photo has turf all over his living room. he seems to be digging up the turf to reveal something underneath. The mystery object underneath is some sort of mysterious light source or something that is glowing. All around the room is dull lighting except for right in the center, thus is it immediately commands the attention of the viewers eyes.'

Crewdson uses solid technique and form in his image. He does not use the rule of thirds. There are no apparent leading lines in the image. The lighting in the image is used to great effect throughout the image. The image isn't framed by anything, and it is properly white balanced. He uses all of these various compositional techniques in conjunction with various elements of design.

Crewdson uses the elements of design, particularly color and shape, to great effect in his work. Color is used very well by Crewdson. The green on the floor directly contrasts with the white and orange yellow throughout the room, and this contrast truly makes the green coloration of the floor pop and stick out to the eyes of the viewer. Crewdson uses shape to great effect as well. The various shapes seen in the room complement one another. The straight, strict lines within the house work in conjunction with the chaos of the waving lines of grass and dirt below. This juxtaposition between the straight, true shapes in the house and the chaotic mess below helps to evoke the central themes of the image.

In his image, Crewdson is attempting to portray suburban america as a wonderful land of mystery. He attempts to achieve this by making a set in which a normal, suburban father figure finds some sort of treasure underneath his house. This treasure could be anything which provokes the thoughts of the viewer. Much like this man is finding an unexpected treasure, life in suburban america is full of unexpected twists and turns. You never know who your neighbors will be, or the type of stories that they will have. On any given day anything can happen. It is truly a land of mystery, and Crewdson simply evokes this in his work by embodying this sense of mystery in a quite literal fashion.

Crewdson's work is, simply put, stunning. He uses a great deal of production factors in his photographs, and it is evident when you look at it. The image successfully conveys the themes that it seems to be attempting to portray. Furthermore, it is able to make the viewers think by not showing what the man is unearthing. All in all, the image is successful.

Mouna Al-Hakeem

4/27/2017 08:32:32 am

This image is of a man inside a room. There is a bunch of grass in the room. It looks like the floor is outside and the walls are inside. It is using dark colors. The light is coming from the floor and the lamps around the room.
The man looks like he is taking the floor apart. He looks like he is trying to see what is inside the hole that is causing the light to go through. The image has perfect exposure. The image is in focus The color are correct.
There is no pixelation. It is in adequate resolution. It is pleasing to look at. The rule of thirds is being used. it looks like he took it on a tripod. It doesn't look like its bugs eye or birds eye.
It is not framed. The diagonal lines from the hill direct my eye to the man. The images balanced. The subject does not fill the frame. The image crops off the rest of the hill and room.
The positive space is the man. The negative space is everything around him. The artist took this photo to portray a sense of mystery. This image s interesting and noteworthy. I do like this image.

Kyle Nevitt link

4/27/2017 08:34:14 am

This image is of a man making a nature scene in his house. It is using the colors of green as the landscape. The lighting is man made light. There is another light source coming from right below the man. The piece of grass is being laid down by the man.

The image looks correctly exposed. It is in focus on the man putting down the grass. The coloring looks to be correct. However, in the background the black is starting to look greenish. There is no apparent pixelation.

The picture looks to have an adequate resolution. The rule of thirds is being used with the man in the middle the hill part of the grass on the left, and the lamp on the right. The point of view is from in front of the man. The focal point of the picture is the man laying down the grass. The image is asymmetrical.

The image fills the frame. The theme of this image has to do with mystery. We do not know why the man is making a nature scene inside his house. We do not know what is making the light from the ground. It looks as if he is trying to make a garden.

I believe he is trying to bring the outside world to him. The theme of this image is to retreat into nature and try to take time away from society. The man in the image is trying to do so by bringing nature into his everyday life. Perhaps he is doing this because he is too busy and cannot afford to take time away from society so he must bring nature to his own home. This man is the epitome of what people should be like. He knows he needs a break from society, but he does not have the ability to take time to go into nature, so he is trying to merge nature into his society. This image also shows what is wrong with the world. People get so invested into their everyday lives that it becomes nearly impossible for them to slow down and even stop. They must keep going but it is necessary to have a break from society to retreat into nature, so they are set up for failure. In the future, society must develop in a way that is almost reverse development, where people become less invested into their lives and stress the importance of nature much more. People must change their ways to escape from society and retreat into the beauty of nature.

Peyton Nebens

4/27/2017 08:36:38 am

This image is of Gregory Crewdson in his living room and his living room floor is grass that he is pulling up from the ground. This looks to me like he actually did shoot it in his living room but its just lighting that is in his living room and also lighting under the ground. What is happening in this image is he is on his hands and knees and is ripping out the grass and is looking into a hole from under ground. I really like this image. This image is very interesting and can mean a lot of different things.

I would say this image is a little underexposed. But, I like that it is underexposed because it makes the image more eery. Yes it is in focus. The focus of this image is Gregory and him pulling out the grass and looking underneath the floor. Yes there is some pixelation this image isn't the best quality.

The angle the photographer took this image is from a side view. The reason I like this photo is because he chose an interesting angle. So that is why I really like this image. In this image there is some extra space of the living room in the background. But the background works, if you had nothing it wouldn't make sense.

The image has different negative and positive spaces. The positive spaces are Gregory pulling the grass, the hole and the light coming up from the hole, and the big pile of grass next to him. The negative spaces in this image are, the lamp and bedside table, the brick wall which is interesting and the piano with no stool. This image is very interesting, and it reminds me of a pirate movie how they look and search and dig for the buried treasure. And Gregory is ripping off the grass to find the answer to all his questions.

This image also is Gregory looks trapped in a way in this living room and he ripped the grass up and it took forever and he finally found a way out. The brick wall I thought was a very nice touch to the image. The brick wall reminds me of someone being trapped. How there is no way out. I really like this image it is very interesting and there could be so many different things that could be interpreted.

Harrison Fentress

4/27/2017 08:38:53 am

This is an image of a young man putting grass/turf flooring into a low ceiling living room with light coming from a hole in front of him. It is using warm red and green colors to give a home like feeling. The lighting is light from many semi-hidden studio lights. There is just him and the room. He looks panicked or guilty.

The image is perfectly exposed. The whole image is in focus. There is a large depth of field probably to show everything in the room is relevant. The colors are correct. There is no pixelation because of the high resolution.

The composition is pleasing to look at because of the correctly warm colors. The rule of thirds is being used because the kneeling man is contained within the middle third. The point of view is from eye level of the man. The focal point is the man's mysterious expression framed by the vague lighting from the lamp, wall and hole. The lines are the border between the wall and floor and the 2 walls creating a point right next to the man. The image is asymmetrical because of the man and stack of grass/turf. There is no extra space. The edge of the image crops off where the walls, floor and ceiling end. The positive is the right 2/3 of the photo and the left third is negative.

There is a theme of guilt and mystery. There may be many different stories behind this image but there was definitely and intention of conveying guilt from the man. This image reminds me of some sort of crime and he's hiding either a body or something of lots of value. It makes me think he's burying something that no one should have and he's hoping it isn't found. The image makes me curious about what would make a man look like this while he buries it.

This image is noteworthy because of it's mystery. It is mysterious in the way that makes you desperate to find out the truth behind it. I like this image. I am glad the photographer doesn't show us what's in the hole because that is what is entertaining. I think the photo is successful in sparking this curiosity.

Bryce C. link

4/27/2017 08:40:52 am

This image by Gregory Crewdson depicts a man lifting a cover. When he lifts the cover, it reveals a hole. The hole is projecting a large amount of light. The floor in this man's home is made of grass. Another odd detail to add is by looking at the hole, you can tell that there are floorboards under the grass flooring.

The light pouring out of the hole affects the dark lighting tone. The lighting seems to bend around the bright light coming out of the hole. Other sources of light besides the hole in the photograph are the lamp on the dresser and what appears to be another hole protruding out of the floorboards. The other hole is located in the doorway to another room in this man's weird house. There are also other, much smaller holes poking through the grass floor in various places.

The major detail that catches my eye about the grass flooring is the left side of the photograph. The grass seems to pile up and slope to left, out of the picture. The grass also is filtering out of holes or outlets in the room. This must be the source of the grass floor in the image. While looking at the doorway, it appears that the grass does not spread to the other room.

Other details I have noticed are about the man. The man is wearing a dirty white shirt covered in dirt and dust. His pants are grey, while sharing the dirt and dust theme. He looks astonished, but not in the good way. The man looks as if he was working and he found something underneath the floorboards that might make all of his progress useless.

This image reminds me of memories from school, particularly this one. It reminds me of those long study nights when you stay up almost all night reading and re-reading the same material. You then find out the next day that the test was cancelled. I like this image, mainly because of how the way the artist uses the lighting to make a strange and mysterious world. I would love to see more image like these.

Roman Ruiz

4/27/2017 08:41:55 am

The image is of a man that seen to be ripping something out of the ground, and either putting in grass, or ripping the turf off of the ground. The colors the photographer is using is mostly green, and orange because of the background. The lighting it a bit of dark shadows, but it is also composed of studio lighting. The objects in this image are just turf with grass, a lamp, and a home. A man is either placing the turf, or ripping it off.

The image is a bit underexposed because of the shadows the grass is casting. The image is in focus and can clearly be seen. The colors in this image are correct because the whites look white. And theres is very little pixelation because it can clearly be seen, and the image has adequate resolution.

In my opinion, this image is not pleasing to look at, and i don't like it that much. The rule of thirds is not being used because the event is in the center of the photograph. The point of view is a bit of birds eye view. The focal point of this image is the area of the giant hole the man made.The image is not balance and is asymmetrical, why? because the turf on the left side take up most of the frame. The frame crops off the rest of the house.

The theme of this image can be that you can take artificial, and bad substances, (the cigarettes on the floor, and the medication on the table) but still want to be natural. The story can be about a man that is depressed that takes medications, and smokes away the depression. This image reminds me of when my parent got a new house. This image doesn't question anything. The image is interesting, and i really like the way he manipulated the light to come out of the ground.

I really like this image. I like it because the way he composed it, and how he manipulated the light. The little details he adds are very interesting. By little details i mean the cigarettes, and the medication. This image looks very successful because he put a lot of work into it, and it came out to look amazing.

Sarah Marshall

4/27/2017 08:42:06 am

This image is of a man in a house with grass inside instead of floors. He is ripping apart the grass to discover a hole underneath that leads to a whole other place. The photo looks post-apocalyptic to me. It seems that way because there are cigarette butts on the ground, mo windows, dark lighting, and a broken phone. The photo uses dark lighting to show mystery and give a dramatic effect to the photo.
The objects in this photo include a person, regular things you would find in a house (fireplace, piano, lamp, nightstand), and irregular things that you wouldn’t find in a house (grass, hole in floor, cigarette butts on floor, and no windows). The lighting is dark and has a lot of contrast and dark shadows. The image is correctly exposed. Everything in the image is in focus. The colors are correct, and the photo has adequate resolution.
The photo is pleasing to look at because every part of the photo that you look at is interesting. The rule of thirds is being used because the subject, the man, is in the third section of the photo. This photo was taken at eye level with the man. The focal point is the man and the hole in the floor that he is looking at. The lines on the th wall, the wood, and the grass, direct your eye to the man and the hole in the floor.
The image is balanced and symmetrical because the lines in the photograph don’t overwhelm your eyes. The subject in the photo is clearly visible. The frame crops off the rest of the room and the house. The story in this photo is dramatic and mysterious. The photo makes you wonder what the story is behind the photo.
The story in this photo seems dramatic as if something bad happened in the world and the man is trying to escape through a hole in the floor. Or maybe he is covering something up and that’s why there is grass instead of flooring. It makes the viewer question the difference between fiction and reality. Was this just a dream? This photo reminds me of the movie 10 Cloverfield Lane, where the man hides out in his basement after an “apocalypse” happens. I enjoy this photo because it makes me wonder what is happening exactly.

Will Thompson

4/27/2017 08:45:50 am

This image by Gregory Crewdson is very interesting. The content is mysterious and kinda confusing. There are many moving parts to this image. They guy in the middle looks as confused as I do. The things under the floor must be something else.
The lighting in this room highlights different parts in different ways. the lamp highlights the reality aspect. The light coming from the ground highlights the fiction. There is a little beam of lite in the room behind the man. This draws you to think what could be in the next room.
The split between reality and fiction is hard to see at some points. It fits almost seemingly together. The man is in the middle of the fiction so it is hard to tell if he is a part of it or not. His expression make me think he fell into the fiction and is just now figuring it out. This may be implying he is loosing his mind.
This image may represent something to the artist. That or it represents something about the man. It could be symbolizing some kind of realization. I think its him understanding that things end. This is because the bottom of the image is grass and this implies a lack of human interference. So its either a premonition of his house after he is gone or something else.
The what looks to be spilled cigarets are very subtle. This may be him understanding they are going to kill him. This causes him to think about what will be after he is gone. That or what he will leave behind. The realization being nothing.

Eddie Garcia

4/27/2017 08:46:16 am

This image contains a lot of grass inside a house. There is a hole in the floor of the house. There is also a man in the center who is either tearing apart the grass, or laying on top of his floor. The colors are more of a dark green, and some soft yellow lights in the background. The lighting used is studio lighting

This image is not under exposed at all. You can see all the details clearly and it does not appear to be darker than normal whatsoever. The image is in focus since you can clearly see everything in the image. There is no pixelation meaning that the image was taken in an adequate resolution. All of the colors are correct, since the green pops out and you can tell its there.

I do not believe that the rule of thirds is being used in this image. I can say this because nothing is perfectly centered, or push to the side. I think this is just a hunan eye view. The angle that the photographer took the image was just probably on a tripod and point straight forward. The subject which i believe to be the person in the center, does not fill up the entire space. There is a lot of extra space around him except for the piles of grass on the left side of the screen.

I think this is trying to reach the theme that humans are destroying nature. This man is trying to cover his floors with grass in hopes of helping. Instead of killing off more nature he is trying to help by putting more into his world, and even in his own house. Even though it won't help the environment that much he is at least trying

I personally do not like this image. Something about it feels off, and i can't really describe it. Also I dont like the dark gloomy colors of the image. It is also just odd. I really want to know why he is putting grass in his house, or if he is taking it out how did it get in there in the first place.

Bo Yin

4/27/2017 08:47:51 am

This is a image of a guy in a room. The guy is putting down lawn grass. We can see the floor in the room is broken. It has lots of shadows. But the part where the face and the broken floor is at has lots of light.

The image is focusing on the man and the broken floor. The image is generally underexposed.The back ground of the picture is too dark. But the main part of the image is full of light. Obviously, the photographer wants to use the light to make us focus on the main part.

This is a pretty strange image for me. It is not that comfortable to look at. The rule of third is not being used.The image is not balanced. But it is trying to tell us a story, so it does not have to be symmetrical.

The image is definitely telling us something. Because this does not happen in normal world often. However, I am not sure what is the artist's idea. The image is definitely weird. It is pretty random.

Overall, I do not like the image very much. I do think it has some good combination of colors and lights. But I do not think that a guy putting lawn grass in a room can mean anything deep. Or it does but I just do not understand it anyway. I think it is super random and strange. I don't get the point of the image.

Karina Samuel

4/27/2017 09:59:28 pm

This cinematic image by Gregory Crewdson is a staged and directed piece to create drama in the suburban theme. This particular image is of a room of an ordinary room usually in a suburban home indicated by the simplicity of the room and the paisley wallpaper. However, the unique aspect to this image is the greenery in this room. It involves natural grass but also faux grass or turf with the mats clearly displayed. The artificial lighting is soft and yellow tinted while being dimly lit in the dark room. It can be seen from the lights on the ceiling and lamp.

Many may argue that the lighting of the image is a bit underexposed but I would say that it is perfect. Even though the lighting is not very bright, the selected sources of light highlights the important features to this photograph. Also a noteworthy aspect to the lighting is to point out that the light from the opened floor board is a different hue that the light lighting the room. It seems more bright and clear, possibly indicating a new beginning or hidden secret. I appreciate Crewdon’s play on light to help portray the story.

This image is in focus with an adequate resolution. Their seems to be no color correction for the (intentional) yellow lighting is evident. The rule of thirds is another defining form of the image. This being applied, helps the viewer observe the surroundings. This detailed studio set up is important to show what the artist is trying to portray. By using the rule of thirds, it helps the Crewdson achieve this.

The viewpoint of this is image was shot just straight on. The lines of the bricked wall in the back suggest calmness and passiveness. Also, the lines of the grass matts lead your eyes to the man sitting in the center of the image. We can assume that he is the subject. He doesn’t fill up the entire space for the negative space takes up the majority of the piece.

I believe an obvious theme that Crewdson is trying to illustrate is the idea of modern society vs nature. Over the past couple of centuries the human race has industrialized and it’s population has boomed. However, this expansion the human civilization has been at the expense of nature with pollution and mistreatment of this planet. I really enjoy how he portrays when nature takes over civilization in the image. Crewdson is really unique with how he utilities his surreal style to create a beautiful and successful image, that’s speaks to a modern day issue.

Daniel Herrera

4/30/2017 01:33:49 pm

In the image you see a man that appears to be rolling out some grass inside of his room, and the man is rolling the grass up above another layer of grass which appears to have had been there previously. This image is using a LUT effect (orange and teal) which allows the colors to be a lot more vibrant keeping the picture looking very smooth. For the lighting there is both, light, and dark shadows. In the background of the image you will see the lamps and a old piano. Along with some old wall designs and furniture. In the image there seems to be a white glow shining at the man. That glow seems to be mysteriously there and he wants to cover it up using the grass.

I believe that the image is slightly over exposed but fixed using light room. And the overexposure allows for the better modification of the colors surrounding. This image is definitely color corrected. Which would be the reason for all the mysterious colors. I believe that there is adequate resolution, allowing all the blacks and all the whites in the image to contain detail.
I find the image to be pleasing to look at because of the mysterious lighting and because of the strange lights everywhere. No, the rule of thirds is not being used. The main focus is the man and the light and everything around him are just extra materials. This image is lined up directly to the man.

The focal point in the image is the man, because of almost every source of light (including the strange white light) is aimed towards him. The lines in the image (which would be the background) are a bit blurry but the main focus which would be the strange hole and light are in focus. The subject fills the frame dead in the center. All the extraordinary items are in focus and fill the image perfectly. If this image was to have a 360 degree view, you would notice that there is a huge pile of grass and probably some more old furniture laid around the house.

In this image, the negative and positive space would be where the light cannot fill in the detail of dark shadows, because when it comes to over exposure, the only thing overexposing would be the light coming from the ground. In this image, the story is not very clear, and you are really going to have to think about why there is a random hole and why it would be getting covered up. This photo reminds me of a lot of the science fiction movies I watched as a kid, in which extraordinary event happened in a house causing huge mysteries.

I find the image interesting, the way in which the whole house is laid out, and the materials are surrounding the room. By the way in which the photographer managed to mixed the grass with the floor, and put the lighting in perfectly, I think that he was very successful. I like this image, it just shows how creative humans can get when it comes to the extraordinary.

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Period 3 -- Critical Analysis #21

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