The Gregory Crewdson film is coming!

[D. Bryant]

Yes, D. Bryant, I agree, he lies squarely in the time-honored tradition of tableaux photography, that post-modern lens-based art strategy that seeks to upend our assumptions about the medium's claim to veracity, a strategy boldly put forth by none other than Henry Peach Robinson. Surely he's ready for his close-up too;-).

I don't normally think of Robinson in that context though I probably should.

Later today after my last post I recalled reading somewhere that Crewdson hypes the pre-production, production, and post-production to help promote pre-sales of projects in order to raise money for the covering the production cost. A challenge that a photographer like Robinson most likely never faced.

[John NYC]

After reading the further discussion, I still don't buy into him being a "process artist". He is a photographer who lights his shots like a sci-fi movie and references all kinds of Americana and loneliness, etc. His process, while more complicated than most photographers, is actually less complicated and involved than shooting a real movie with special effects, and we don't call these people process artists -- although maybe we should since most movies are more interesting in their behind the scenes "how did they do it?" these days than the actual final product.

[Michael W]

For other large format photographer documentaries, there are:

Sally Mann, What Remains
http://www.amazon.com/What-Remains-L...0183316&sr=8-1

Abellardo Morell, Shadow of the House
http://shadowofthehouse.com/index.html

Alec Soth, Somewhere to Disappear
http://www.somewheretodisappearthefilm.com/

The Sally Mann & Abelardo Morell docs are both excellent.

[frotog]

After reading the further discussion, I still don't buy into him being a "process artist". He is a photographer who lights his shots like a sci-fi movie and references all kinds of Americana and loneliness, etc. His process, while more complicated than most photographers, is actually less complicated and involved than shooting a real movie with special effects, and we don't call these people process artists -- although maybe we should since most movies are more interesting in their behind the scenes "how did they do it?" these days than the actual final product.

You're absolutely right John. And to be clear, I don't buy into it either. But Greg spins it this way. And I was being facetious, mostly in response to a post made earlier by someone who initially brought up the "it's not the picture, it's the process" malarkey. All I see is an over-produced, over-lit, saccharine picture that looks like it's trying to sell me on a prescription for a mood-stabilizing drug.

[John NYC]

You're absolutely right John. And to be clear, I don't buy into it either. But Greg spins it this way. And I was being facetious, mostly in response to a post made earlier by someone who initially brought up the "it's not the picture, it's the process" malarkey. All I see is an over-produced, over-lit, saccharine picture that looks like it's trying to sell me on a prescription for a mood-stabilizing drug.

Yes, I'm not arguing with you and thinking you are taking the other side. I am more just thinking out loud and your comments were the ones that got me thinking about it.

[Thom Bennett]

The film was screened last night at the Film-O-Rama film festival here in New Orleans. It was the second official screening of the film! The New Orleans Photo Alliance collaborated with The New Orleans Film Society to bring the film maker, Ben Shapiro, to the screening and he kindly did a Q&A afterwards. I found the film very insightful as to Crewdson's working methods and the process he goes through to construct his photographs from the initial idea to the final shoot. Mr. Shapiro did a wonderful job editing the film. You come away with a better sense of this particular artist at work.

[Old-N-Feeble]

I think it'll be an interesting film. Thanks for sharing.

[sun of sand]

been reading this thread and the only thing worth commenting on is

anonymous benefit of "handles" or "nicknames"

Truth is is that while on the internet EVERYONE is "anonymous" whether they use a real name or not
I imagine Kerik Kouklis is the real name of the person posting as Kerik Kouklis
But I doubt I'll ever meet that person so he is in fact quite "anonymous"
at least by your definition

It seems to me that what you're actually WANTING to say is that unless you're known outside of the internet and use your real name online -AND PROVE IT- that you're not to be trusted

which is a pretty republi
lol
It's pretty sad, anyway.


If someone
lets just me for this one
uses the same moniker/assumed name/alias/penname/pseudonym/screename/SN/nickname/handle
everywhere on the internet or at the very least uses a name that isn't "GUEST"
one that separates them from anyone else on the system
-remember that you cannot choose any sn you prefer ..it has to be available in order to use it-
You are in fact not truly anonymous
you can be picked out of the crowd
sometimes while not even using your SN

If people know you well enough to pick your posts out while posting under another name
guess what, man
you have an identity
you are responsible for what you write
you did "put your name on it"
reputation, too



Go ahead and try meeting someone offline to make them pay for their views ..harmlessy even
tell me how creepy you'd be in taking an online discussion into the real world


c'mon, dude
get real


the internet is not anonymous
it's not impersonal
it's just not in person

If bad things happen online
worse things happen in real life
nobody goes around yelling in real life about how real everything is
shi
people get murdered every day and the only time we think about it is while watching the news


OH NOS THE INTERNET IS BOTHERING ME
i'm clicking "ignore"

how fkn lame

[zenny]

Hi all:

The amount of effort that Crewdson puts in creating a staged/engineered tableau appears to be admiring. I previously saw him creating a scene on a snowy night on a street. His effort is as admirable as the wax statues of the Madam Tussaud's wax museum. His pictures are more illusionary like wax replica of personalities at Madam Tussaud's: Look real, but not.

With the development of manipulation softwares like Photoshop, Gimp (http://gimp.org), blender (http://blender.org) and many others, a lot of fabricated variations are possible in graphics.

Crewdson tried to tried to embrace a trend established since 17th century. Maybe this video (http://vimeo.com/4216465) is something interesting to watch. However, he set his own style, that appeals viewers!

The only thing I admire about Crewdson is the amount of effort he invests in engineering fabricated reality and the number of jobs he creates though his style. Thanks, Mr. Crewdson!

/z

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