Twilight: Photographs by Gregory Crewdson (Hardcover)

by Rick Moody (Author), Gregory Crewdson (Photographer)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Twilight, that indistinct time between day and night, is an appropriate title for the latest and most substantial monograph by photographer Crewdson (after 1999's Dream of Life and 1998's Hover). Continuing his tradition of photographing cinematically staged and darkened realities of suburban life, Crewdson presents characters who exist in a world where American Beauty meets The X-Files. This volume's 40 images, which were inspired by Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, were created much like a feature film; the production crew included lighting supervisors, pyrotechnic experts, interior designers, and bug wranglers. Crewdson's fabricated realities contradict the traditional photographic adage of the "decisive moment." In using this method, he demonstrates that the camera can do much more than capture a moment in time, thus placing this work in the vanguard of contemporary art photography. The book begins with an essay by novelist Moody and ends with production stills and credits. Recommended for all public and academic collections. Shauna Frischkorn, Millersville Univ. Lib., PA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
"Crewdson is at the forefront of a movement in contemporary photography that has abandoned realism in pursuit of pure cinematic fantasy." —The New York Times Magazine

Twilight: in that zone between the certainty of day and fear of the dark, Gregory Crewdson sets his eerie, enigmatic photographs. A woman floats in her flooded living room, a cow appears to have fallen from the sky onto a front lawn, a gang of teenagers, seemingly hypnotized, pile up household objects for a bonfire. Created as elaborately staged tableaux, this series of images suggests the bizarre yet beautiful surrealities behind deceptively familiar suburban facades. Scheduled to accompany three simultaneous gallery exhibitions in Spring 2002 and a subsequent retrospective at Mass MoCA, this book chronicles the completion of the Twilight series, which Crewdson began in 1998. Including both production stills and the 40 finished images, all in full color, it also features an essay by Rick Moody, a novelist equally renowned for exposing the underbelly of small-town, middle-class America.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810910039
• ISBN-13: 978-0810910034
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 10.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #198,669 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, May 31, 2003

By A Customer

Crewdson uses elements of documentary photography and cinema to give authority and narrative to intricately and flawlessly constructed, amazingly artificial scenes. To criticize these photographs for being "forced" or lacking sincerity is like criticising a race car driver for driving too fast. The amount of effort and detail that went into constructing these realities is the entire point of this book. A photograph doesn't have to refer to something that is "real" in order to be valuable, compelling, and beautiful in its own right. This is an excellent, highly recomended book.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating photos and read, June 17, 2002

By A Customer

This book is an incredible documentation of community-based art. The artist, Gregory Crewdson, worked over years to unite a small town in the hills of Massachusetts to create art.
It's inspiring to find out that the people of the town (Lee) not only donate their houses for photo shoots, but they also block off streets and are subjects of the photographs.
The photos in the book are accompanied by text written by Rick Moody. The text is interesting, touching on the psychological forces compelling Crewdson to create art--but the real treat is in the photographs themselves.
The work is produced far away from the mainstream art world of Chelsea, yet it has made a great impression there.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeuos, November 16, 2006

By	E. Menard - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I love this book, its so inspiring. The title "twilight" is a time of the day when things seem real but at the same time they dont. The thing I love is that the illustrations look like photographs in a way, which is the piont their trying to make.