Lighting Master
IT’S 1967. MUFFLED VOICES FLOAT UP THROUGH the floorboards as five-year-old Gregory Crewdson plays in the living room of his family’s home in Brooklyn. Greg’s father, a psychoanalyst, is seeing a patient in his basement office. The child strains to hear what is being said, but the words are unintelligible. He goes back to playing, but the Freudian realm beneath the floorboards has registered in his mind as a mysterious place where stories are told and secrets reside. Fast forward to 2007. Crewdson, now 45, is working on his latest series of photographs, “Beneath the Roses.” His canvas is suburban and small-town America—a familiar milieu where the lawns are mowed, the streets are empty and little seems to be happening on the surface. But “Beneath the Roses” isn’t about surfaces. Four years in the making—with the final images slated for production this summer and a book due out next spring—the project presents small-town America as might have been seen by Sigmund Freud. “Beneath the Roses” is Crewdson’s most ambitious series to date, with sixfigure production budgets for many of the images, lighting and production crews of 50 people or more, and production values that rival those of a Hollywood film. Working with director of photography Richards Sands, his alter ego and keeper of the light, Crewdson has created a parallel universe teeming with neuroses, harbored secrets, unhealthy obsessions, repressed desires and uneasy alliances. More than ever before, light is a powerful narrative force in these elaborately staged images: atmospheric, transformative and haunting. “Beneath the Roses” is a world suspended in twilight— masterfully rendered by Sands, who had already spent 20 years lighting big-budget Hollywood films before beginning his decade-long collaboration with Crewdson. A house bursts into flame, a woman floats face up in a flooded living room and familiar American traditions such as Sunday dinner take on new and disturbing dimensions. In every image, Crewdson’s recurring themes of anxiety and loneliness, isolation and alienation unfold like a troubled dream. “The viewer is left to imagine what comes before or after, because my photos are unresolved,” says Crewdson, who confesses that even he doesn’t always know what the pictures are about. Although Crewdson’s work has become more subtle and less shocking as he has matured as an artist, he still seems happiest when he is rooting around in the darker recesses of the American psyche. Reportedly, when directing Gwyneth Paltrow for his Dream House series, commissioned by The New York Times Magazine, Crewdson’s sole art direction, delivered sotto voce, was “More shame.” COURTESY GREGORY CREWDSON
TECH
ALL PHOTOS © GREGORY CREWDSON
Gregory Crewdson’s Twilight World In elaborately staged productions with six-figure budgets, Gregory Crewdson and director of photography Richard Sands illuminate the dark side of the American Dream. By Susan Reich
70 PDN JULY 2007
Look at his cinematic images long enough and you’ll see intimations of Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind; the paintings of Edward Hopper; images by Diane Arbus, William Eggleston and Cindy Sherman. “My pictures are very psychological—and the core themes and issues never change. That’s something my therapist would confirm,” says Crewdson with a chuckle. “The work isn’t directly autobiographical, but the pictures definitely reflect my psychological fears and anxieties and desires.” A surprisingly affable and upbeat guy, Crewdson planned to follow in his father’s profession—until he enrolled in an introductory photography course while studying psychology as an undergraduate at State University of New York at Purchase. “I was hooked from that moment,” recalls Crewdson, who eventually got his masters at Yale. “Photography is very connected—in a profound way—to voyeurism. Because my father was a psychoanalyst, I think I was always interested in the forbidden, in secrets, in something terrifying or strange. From the very beginning, my photography was about trying to find a sense of mystery in everyday life, about trying to use color and light to tell a story— an internal story—in pictures.” It’s no wonder, then, that novelist A.M. Homes, writing in Artforum, described Crewdson as “Norman Rockwell meets Norman Bates.” Clearly, Crewdson still has one ear pressed to the floorboards, drawing his creative inspiration from the angst that lurks just beneath the surface of middleclass American life. PDN: Your psychological influences are pretty well documented. How about some of your creative influences? Gregory Crewdson: When I was 10, my father brought me to a MoMA retrospective of Diane Arbus’ work. I think, on an unconscious level, that I first understood the power of photography when I saw that exhibit. There was something terrifying about her pictures, but also absolutely fascinating. It was a defining experience for me. As a young photographer, I was influenced by Walker Evans and William Eggleston and Lee Friedlander. What I respond to most about their work is their interest in the American vernacular, the American landscape. I would include Joel Sternfeld in that mix too. But, at the same time, I was very interested in films and painting and literature. PDN: Are there any visual artists who have influenced your lighting style in particular? Crewdson: Edward Hopper’s paintings were great
lessons for me in terms of the way that lighting can transform ordinary life. If you look at his paintings carefully, the light is not in any way naturalistic. There are also these impossible geometries of light, so I respond to his work in that way as well. I love the light in so many of Hitchcock’s films, particularly Vertigo, which is like a strange and enchanting dream. Orson Welles was an influence for his use of light and deep space. David Lynch is a huge influence in terms of his saturated color and darkness and the tension between the two. That is a big dynamic in my pictures: the contrast between light and darkness and color and how that is so important to the story being told. The contrast creates a distinction between what is known about an image and what remains mysterious or inaccessible. PDN: Can you remember the first time you made a photograph that you loved? Crewdson: The first picture that had any meaning for me was shot in Massachusetts when I was an undergraduate. It was a picture of a red car parked in front of a picket fence outside of a suburban house. I was immediately interested in it because it seemed familiar and even iconic, but it also seemed hyperreal, in terms of the colors and the saturation. I’ve always loved that combination of something that feels familiar and strange at the same time, which is essentially the uncanny. I’m still doing variations on that scene. PDN: Do you see yourself as a fine artist who uses photography as a means to an end, or as a photographer? Crewdson: I’m an artist who uses photography, that’s true. But I feel very strongly that I come out of the tradition of photography even though my work is clearly influenced by film, painting and sculpture. I’ve always thought of myself exclusively as a photographer, because I think exclusively in terms of single images, about a frozen moment in time. PDN: When you were a graduate student at Yale, you spent one summer making pictures in the small towns around Becket, Massachusetts, where your family owns a log cabin and you spent vacations as a kid. But, even as a graduate student, you weren’t interested in making a traditional document. Crewdson: That’s right. Instead, I used the towns as settings to stage my own narratives. I’d just knock on people’s doors and ask if I could create some kind of narrative. I show them my work and, most of the time, the people would say no. But sometimes people said yes. I’d bring in my lights and set up this quiet psychological narrative, using color and light to create a mood. I was using the camera as a kind of alibi to enter another world; it was voyeuristic in a way, but also trans-
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Lighting Master
H11
H10
1 2,3
4
5, 6 H12 Generator Truck
H13
H9
H14
H8 10 36, 37 & 38 on 40-foot lift H7
Maple Street
H6
H16 11 12 13
H17
14
H5
15, 16
H18
H4 39, 40, 41 & 42 on 40-foot lift
SOURCE: Mole Richardson 1K
LIGHT #17
spot lens and 1/2 CTS gel,
tungsten Nook Light with
LOCATION: First-floor interior of
House #12 (at far left edge of
mounted on turtle stand (light
medium bastard amber gel
House #4
H3 H19 44 45 17, 18 H2
47
H20 Taxi
46
H21
Model
25 19 26 20,21,22 27 23,24 28
H1 (Hero House)
30,31,32,33
29 34 & 35 on 40-foot lift
Generator Truck
F
Camera: Sinar F1 8 x 10 camera with 280mm lens
KEY: All lights indicated in red. H=House See separate list for specific technical information about each light source >
Shoot Date: August 2003 Project: “Beneath the Roses”
Featured on the cover of Gregory Crewdson: 1985 to 2005 (published by Hatje Cantz in November 2005), this is one of the photographer’s more lightingintensive images, with 47 sources overall. Crewdson created it for his “Beneath the Roses” series, which he began shooting in 2003 and will complete this summer. The series is by far his most ambitious in terms of lighting and production. “I’ve always felt that this shot was emblematic of the series because it conveyed a feeling of sadness, but also of real romantic beauty, particularly with the beautiful tree, perfectly for me,” he muses.“We had this odd moment, this private moment, of this young girl leaving the cab and the tree offering a stage for that action. The shoot was a challenging one for a variety of reasons. “I chose this very rough street in a small Vermont town as the location,” says Crewdson.“When one of the residents, a friendly guy who lived in the ‘hero house’ [right foreground] gave us a tour of his home, his gun collection was prominently displayed in every room. It was pretty weird. And there was
72 PDN JULY 2007
LIGHT #36
LOCATION: Offstage, to frame right
LOCATION: Between House #14 and
medium lens, no gel
LIGHT #24
of House #1
House #15, on 40-foot articulating
PURPOSE: To backlight artificial “fog”
SOURCE: Arri 6K HMI PAR with
frame)
head is mounted directly on C-
PURPOSE: Bounced into ceiling to
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Mighty
LOCATION: Interior of House #1
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Mighty
Genie lift
and create streaks of light coming
stand base; center of source is
illuminate ceiling of porch
(2K open face focusable spot)
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Tweenie
(2K open-face focusable spot)
SOURCE: Arri 2.5K HMI PAR with
through fog
MolePAR (1K medium-flood
about 18 inches from ground)
tungsten source with Lee 103 gel
(650-watt fresnel) tungsten source
tungsten source with 1/4 CTB gel, on
medium lens and 1/2 CTS gel
tungsten par) with full CTB gel
PURPOSE: Raking front of House
LIGHT #12
(bounced off of ceiling)
with 1/2 CTS (straw) gel
low stand, about 2 feet from ground
PURPOSE: To simulate illumination
LIGHT #43
and Lee #216 full white
#12
LOCATION: First-floor interior of
PURPOSE: To provide interior
PURPOSE: Front porch window
PURPOSE: To rake side of House #1
from a street light
LOCATION: Camera left, in front of
House #5
ambient illumination
backlight on House #1 LIGHT #31
LIGHT #37
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Mighty
House #21
PURPOSE: Bounced into second-
LIGHT #6
SOURCE: Mole Richardson
story ceiling to provide ambient
LOCATION: On sidewalk in front
Mickey (1K open face focusable
LIGHT #18
LIGHT #25
LOCATION: Offstage, to frame right
LOCATION: Between House #14 and
(2K open-face focusable spot)
room illumination visible
of House #10 (on street
spot) tungsten source with
LOCATION: First-floor interior of
LOCATION: Sidewalk outside of
of House #1
House #15, on 40-foot articulating
tungsten source with 1/4 CTB gel, on
through upstairs window, with
perpendicular to Maple Street)
medium bastard amber gel
House #4
House #1
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Mighty
Genie lift
low stand, 2 feet from ground,
direct spill on curtain in lower-
SOURCE: Arri 1.2K HMI Par with
PURPOSE: To illuminate doorway
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Baby
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Mighty
(2K open-face focusable spot)
SOURCE: Arri 2.5K HMI PAR with
angled upward
left-hand corner of window to
medium lens and 1/2 CTS gel,
and porch step handrail of
Junior (2K fresnel) tungsten source
(2K open-face focusable spot)
tungsten source with 1/4 CTB gel
medium lens and 1/2 CTS gel
PURPOSE: To cross-light the lower
simulate uneven quality of
mounted on turtle stand (light
House #5
ambient room light
head is mounted right on C-
with 1/2 CTB gel
tungsten source with 1/2 CTS
and 1000H diffusion, on pancake
PURPOSE: To simulate illumination
tree limbs and leaves on the far left-
PURPOSE: Window backlight in
(straw) gel
apple box (12 inches from ground)
from a street light
hand side of the frame
House #4
PURPOSE: Tree uplight (to highlight
PURPOSE: To cross-light large tree in
the leaves on the tree canopy over
front of House #1
LIGHT #38
LIGHT #44
LOCATION: Between House #14 and
LOCATION: In front of taxicab, near
LIGHT #32
House #15, on 40-foot articulating
headlights, mounted on pancake apple box (about 14 inches from
stand base; center of source is
LIGHT #13
LIGHT #2
about 18 inches from ground)
LOCATION: First-floor interior of
LOCATION: Downstairs interior
PURPOSE: To up-light the tree
House #5
LIGHT #19
of House #12 (at far left edge of
behind the tree next to
SOURCE: Mole Richardson
LOCATION: Between House #1 and
frame)
House #12
Mickey (1K open face focusable
House #2
LIGHT #26
LOCATION: Offstage, to frame right
Genie lift
spot) tungsten source with
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Baby
LOCATION: Porch of House #1
of House #1
SOURCE: Arri 6K HMI PAR with
ground)
medium bastard amber gel
Senior (5K fresnel) tungsten source
SOURCE: Mole Richardson 1K Nook
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Mickey (1K
medium lens and 1/2 CTB gel
SOURCE: Mole Richardson VNSP
the car)
MolePAR (1K medium-flood
LIGHT #7
tungsten par) with 1/2 CTB gel
LOCATION: Between House #8
(direct, not bounced)
with Lee 103 straw gel on turtle
Light tungsten source with 1/2 CTS
open-face focusable spot) tungsten
PURPOSE: To rake houses on frame
(very narrow spot par), no gel
and Lee #216 full white
and House #9
PURPOSE: To simulate practical
stand (head mounted directly on C-
(straw) gel
source with 1/4 CTB gel and 1000H
right
PURPOSE: To simulate taxicab
diffusion
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Baby
sources inside of room,
stand base)
PURPOSE: To simulate porch light on
diffusion, on pancake apple box (12
PURPOSE: To simulate ambient
Senior (5K fresnel) tungsten
backlight downstairs window
PURPOSE: Raking leaves of tree in
House #1
inches from ground) PURPOSE: To up-light the tree in
LOCATION: Between House #18 and
LIGHT #45
LIGHT #27
front of House #1
House #19, on 60-foot articulating
LOCATION: In front of taxicab, near
Genie lift
headlights, mounted on pancake apple box (about 14 inches from
front of hero house (House #1)
headlight LIGHT #39
room illumination visible
source with 1/2 CTB gel
through first-floor window
PURPOSE: To rake the ground,
LIGHT #14
including the grass on the
LOCATION: Upstairs interior of
LIGHT #20
LOCATION: Porch of House #1
street corner
House #5
LOCATION: Interior of House #1
SOURCE: Mole Richardson 1K Nook
LIGHT #33
SOURCE: Arri 4K HMI PAR with
SOURCE: Mole Richardson
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Mickey (1K
Light tungsten source with 1/2 CTS
LOCATION: Offstage, to frame right
medium lens and 1/2 CTS gel
ground)
open-face focusable spot) tungsten
(straw) gel
of House #1
PURPOSE: To simulate illumination
SOURCE: Mole Richardson VNSP
from a street light
LIGHT #3 LOCATION: Downstairs interior
of House #12 (at far left edge of
LIGHT #8
Tweenie (650-watt fresnel)
frame)
LOCATION: Between House #8
tungsten source with 1/2 CTB
source with Lee 103 straw gel
PURPOSE: To simulate porch light on
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Baby
SOURCE: Mole Richardson 1K
and House #9
gel (direct, not bounced)
PURPOSE: To provide interior
House #1
Senior (5K fresnel) tungsten source
MolePAR (medium-flood
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Baby
PURPOSE: Illuminate upstairs
ambient illumination in House #1
tungsten par) with 1/2 CTS gel
Senior (5K fresnel) tungsten
interior of House #5, window
and Lee #250 half white
source with 1/2 CTB gel
backlight simulating practical
LIGHT #21
diffusion.
PURPOSE: To illuminate the front
sources in room
LOCATION: Interior of House #1
PURPOSE: To simulate ambient
porch of House #9 LIGHT #15
room light visible through firstTitle: “Untitled” (Maple Street)
LIGHT #30
backlight on House #1
SOURCE: Mole Richardson
SOURCE: Mole Richardson
Tree
43
SOURCE: Arri 1.2K HMI Par with
LOCATION: Upstairs interior of
diffusion
7, 8 9
H15
LIGHT #1
(very narrow spot par), no gel PURPOSE: To simulate taxicab
with 1/2 CTS gel on Mathews
LIGHT #40
Mombo-Combo stand (12 feet from
LOCATION: Between House #18 and
LOCATION: Porch of House #1
ground)
House #19, on 60-foot articulating
LIGHT #46
SOURCE: Mole Richardson 1K VNSP
PURPOSE: To sidelight second floor
Genie lift
LOCATION: Interior of taxicab,
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Mickey (1K
(very narrow spot par) with 1/4 CTB
(street side only) of House #1
SOURCE: Arri 2.5K HMI PAR with
mounted to ceiling of cab
open-face focusable spot) tungsten
gel
medium lens and 1/2 CTS gel
SOURCE: Kinoflo “Skinny Boy” with
LIGHT #28
headlight
LIGHT #9
LOCATION: First-floor interior of
source with Lee 103 straw gel
PURPOSE: Bounced into ceiling of
LIGHT #34
PURPOSE: To simulate illumination
5600-degree K daylight balanced
LOCATION: first-floor interior of
House #4
PURPOSE: To provide interior
porch to create ambient light on
LOCATION: Offstage on camera right,
from a street light and light the
bulbs. Kinoflo ballast hidden from
LIGHT #4
House #8
SOURCE: Mole Richardson
ambient illumination in House #1
porch
on 40-foot articulating Genie lift
grass behind the taxi door
LOCATION: Out of frame to the
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Baby
Mickey (1K open face focusable
floor window
SOURCE: Arri 4K HMI PAR with me-
left of House #12
Junior (2K fresnel) tungsten
spot) tungsten source with full
LIGHT #22
LIGHT #29
dium lens, 1/2 CTS gel, Chimera soft-
LIGHT #41
SOURCE: CineMills 12K HMI
source with Lee #103 gel
CTB gel (bounced into
LOCATION: Interior of House #1
LOCATION: On the street near
box with 1/4-grid diffusion panel and
LOCATION: Between House #18 and
Fresnel with 1/2 CTS gel on a
PURPOSE: Window backlight
Matthews Supercrank stand PURPOSE: To illuminate the tree
LIGHT #10
just to the left of House #12,
LOCATION: First-floor interior of
view on street in front of taxi. PURPOSE: To illuminate interior of
taxicab
downstairs ceiling)
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Mickey (1K
sidewalk, behind and to the right of
60-degree “egg crate” soft fabric grid
House #19, on 60-foot articulating
LIGHT #47
PURPOSE: To provide first-floor
open-face focusable spot) tungsten
the camera
PURPOSE: Key source, illuminating
Genie lift
LOCATION: Inside of “Taxi” sign on
interior ambient illumination
source with 1/2 CTS (straw) gel
SOURCE: Arri 1.2K HMI par with 1/4
model from above
SOURCE: Arri 4K HMI PAR with
top of car
PURPOSE: Window backlight
CTB (2 feet from ground) with 1/4
medium lens and 1/2 CTS gel
SOURCE: Two 40-watt A19
cast a bluish light on second-
House #8
LIGHT #16
(window on side of house at
CTB gel, bounced into white lamé
LIGHT #35
PURPOSE: To backlight artificial “fog”
(household) bulbs screwed into two
story façade of House #9 and
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Baby
LOCATION: First-floor interior of
extreme right-hand edge of frame)
on 8 x 8-foot frame laid flat on
LOCATION: Offstage on camera right,
and create streaks of light coming
sockets of a Lowell K5 kit, cube-
sidelight tree in front of
Junior (2K fresnel) tungsten
House #4
ground
on 40-foot articulating Genie lift
through tree. Also to light bottom
tapped into one dimmer. Dimmer
House #9
source with Lee #103 gel
SOURCE: Mole Richardson
LIGHT #23
PURPOSE: Low bounce fill source for
SOURCE: Arri 2.5 K HMI PAR with
left edge of tree.
hidden from view next to Kinoflo
PURPOSE: Front door backlight
Tweenie (650-watt fresnel)
LOCATION: Interior of House #1
woman, cab and tree (source was
wide lens, 1/2 CTS gel, Chimera soft-
tungsten source with half CTB
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Tweenie
placed low and bounced from
box with 1/2 grid diffusion and 40-
LIGHT #42
gel
(650-watt fresnel) tungsten source
below to minimize spill on street
degree “egg crate” soft fabric grid
LOCATION: Between House #18 and
surface)
PURPOSE: To cross-light tree (top of
House #19, on 60-foot articulating
frame right)
Genie lift
LIGHT #5 LOCATION: On sidewalk in front
LIGHT #11
of House #10 (on street
LOCATION: Porch ceiling of
PURPOSE: Window backlight
with 1/2 CTS (straw) gel
perpendicular to Maple Street)
House #5
above model’s head
PURPOSE: Front porch window
ballast on street in front of taxi PURPOSE: To illuminate “Taxi” sign
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a bad drug problem on the block. We were warned by the police not to shoot there.” But Crewdson loved the location and didn't want to move. "I like the fact that the tree is really large and sort of protective, but slightly menacing at the same time,” he explains. So he simply asked for additional police patrols. “It took two days to set up all the lights,” he recalls.“For every lit window you see in this image, we had to put a light in someone’s living room or bedroom, so we were disrupting people’s lives. We left these huge lights in people’s houses and cranes in place overnight, with security guards to keep an eye on things. “There is not a single light in this shot that isn’t ours,” he emphasizes,“not even the cab sign or the streetlights. We worked with the electric company to turn off all of the streetlights because they were the wrong color temperature and the light was too strong.” Director of photography Richard Sands and the crew rigged a series of HMI PARS on 40-foot and 60-foot articulating Genie lifts to simulate streetlights. According to Crewdson, the lighting objective for this shot “was to take a small moment and make it dramatic and make it tell the story, to transform a mundane evening into something beautiful and mysterious and slightly menacing and sinister.” “I wanted the lighting to create a sense of atmosphere,” he explains.“For instance, we let the shadows in the tree go dark and the tree took on a life of its own—it became almost like a creature. “We also used light to draw the eye to certain elements in the shot, such as the porch in the foreground and the house at the far end of the street—and to suggest a physical presence in those houses.” After the requisite flagging and grip work to shape and modify the lights, Crewdson and the rest of the crew waited until there was a good balance between the waning ambient twilight and their artificial sources. Then they fogged the street and exposed 40 to 50 sheets of Kodak Portra 400 NC film, using a Sinar 8 x 10 camera with a 280mm lens. Exposure times ranged from one to five seconds and apertures ranged from f/45 to f/22 as the ambient light levels decreased. Crewdson also made a series of exposures with different focal points. After the shoot, he viewed digital proof prints of the 8x10 film and selected the sharpest elements from each shot, as well as the best lighting exposures. A digital artist then composited these elements together into a single image during a two-month post-production phase.
formative. That’s really when the core elements of my picture-making activity came together. PDN: When did artificial lighting begin to figure more prominently in your photography? Crewdson: In 1987, I began making pictures on the outskirts of a baseball field at night, because I was interested in the eerie illumination from the field lights. That’s when I first started to become aware of the power of light as a way of transforming everyday life into something mysterious and beautiful. If you looked at that baseball field during the day, it was very nondescript. But at night it became a very magical place. PDN: Since 1988, you’ve worked more like a film director than a photographer—making images rather than taking them—with a director of photography, a full lighting crew, a production team and even a camera operator. Are you content to let somebody else set the lights and click the shutter? Crewdson: Absolutely. But, at the end of the day, the picture has to reflect my sensibility. PDN: Lighting seems to play a pretty important role in your work. Crewdson: It’s huge. More often than not, the light works as a kind of narrative code. It directs the action. It tells the story. PDN: What is the lighting process like for you? Crewdson: It’s the most exciting part of the process. It’s when the sets really come to life, when you establish the mood. The process is painful until we get to that point. There is always a point, particularly on
74 PDN JULY 2007
location, when everything comes together to create a perfect moment, frozen in time—and that’s the magical part for me. PDN: One doesn’t get the sense that you are trying to simulate reality with your lighting. Crewdson: No, I’m using light to transform reality, to create a palette and a sensibility that conveys a convincing fiction. Light is ultimately the thing that tells the story in my pictures. In fact, if you went to any of my locations, they would seem pretty mundane and ordinary. It’s the lighting and the color that transforms them. PDN: In a New York Times article, your director of photography, Richard Sands, was described as “always calm, but never still.” What’s it like to work with him? Crewdson: In a lot of ways, we are very different. He has nothing to do with the art world. He is more technically oriented and he is an absolute genius of light. But we are very connected. Rick is quiet, but very focused. One thing that you have to know about Rick is that he is a huge guy— tall and muscular and strong. I’ve seen him walking around the set holding 15 light stands in one hand. When I started working with Rick, the collaboration brought my work to a whole new level in terms of scale and complexity. Now I wouldn’t think of starting a project without him. We have been working together for so long that we speak in shorthand. At the beginning of a project, [using the Maple Street image as an example], we will go out to the location together and I will say something simple like, “The frame will begin at the
TECH
Lighting Master merged in water? Crewdson: Yes. For me, swimming is a time when I’m away from the chaos of the world and I can allow myself to daydream. If an image stays with me, then I start working on it with my assistant. We write up a description of the idea and I give it to my art director. Then we start having weekly meetings, where the art director will do sketches. We will keep working on these sketches for months. Once the drawing is finalized, we have a bigger meeting with the director of photography and my line producer. Then I am committed. The production gets bigger and bigger and harder and harder to pull back from. The entire process—from idea to printed image—takes about half a year. PDN: Why are you still exposing your images on film, rather than capturing them digitally? Crewdson: Because I love the way film looks. I love the interaction between light and film. And there is nothing digitally at this point that can contain the information than an 8 x 10 negative can.
Title: “Untitled” (Sunday Roast) Shoot Date: Winter 2005 Project: “Beneath the Roses”
Shot on a soundstage at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Massachusetts, this image is classic Crewdson: He’s taken a familiar domestic tableau and imbued it with disturbing undercurrents. The nauseating roast, which— highlighted by Director of Photography Richard Sands’ lighting design—becomes a focal point, more evocative of carnage than comfort. “I wanted to create a Norman-Rockwellesque family dinner, but to have it really estranged—with a sense of quiet alienation conveyed by the strange relationship between the woman and boy,” Crewdson explains.“My intent was to make the roast feel almost bloodlike, so that it would lend a slightly sinister quality to the picture. I liked the way the red meat played off of the woman’s red sweater, and I think it also made the moment feel significant and filled with portent, like a rite of passage. “My goal with the light was to create an indelible, hyper-real, saturated, beautiful scene, in which the light leads you into the deep space of the image,” he adds.“I wanted each room to have its own texture and light and feel. I also wanted the lights to create a separation between the two characters. Beyond the kitchen window,
76 PDN JULY 2007
you see another house façade, and I deliberately changed the temperature of the light to make it cooler, more like nocturnal light. The scene is also darkened around the edges to create a frame for the image. I wanted the light to reveal just enough texture on the foreground wallpaper to suggest another room, but not so much light that it would disrupt the image or pull the eye away from the interior space.” Crewdson exposed the image on Kodak Portra 400 NC film, using a Sinar 8 x 10 camera with a 280mm lens. He exposed approximately 40 to 50 sheets of film, using exposure times that ranged from one to 15 seconds, at apertures ranging from f/22 to f/45. He also varied his focal points throughout the exposure process. In postproduction, he viewed digital proof prints of the different frames and selected the sharpest elements in each shot, as well as the best exposures for the lighting. A digital artist then composited these elements together into a single image. “Working with large-format film, it would be impossible to get everything in the frame sharp in one exposure,” explains Crewdson, who prefers a “hypersharp” image, in which everything is in focus from front to back.
side of the house and the house at the bottom of the street is really important. There will be a nondescript cab underneath the tree and a woman standing outside of the cab, holding clothes. There will be man driving the cab and a boy with his back turned.” And that’s all I will say. [Laughs.] One of the extraordinary things about Rick is that he immediately sees the light in his head and knows exactly where the lights need to be placed. After we talk, he will walk down the street and say, “We are going to need a crane here, a first generator here. We need to clear this house and that one over there for a light in the interior.” He will be taking notes the whole time. Early on, there was much more discussion, but now it’s not necessary. Sometimes I will say something like, “It’s really important that the interior of the cab is lit,” but I have never once told him where to put a light—and he would never question my framing or the contents of a picture. We both have our territories.
PDN: How has your lighting evolved? Crewdson: I’ve always thought of lighting and color as the central components of my pictures, but this has evolved over the years from something that was done quite modestly to something that is, at this point, quite complex and emblematic. In the early days, I’d find a location and we’d start figuring out how to light it. When we needed power, we’d tie into circuit breakers in people’s houses. The crew consisted of me, Rick, Dan Karp (the camera assistant) and a tree surgeon I hired to rig lights in his cranes. Now lighting has become this huge, complicated thing. We rent truckloads of equipment and have three or four cranes and two or three generators and location scouts and line producers all in the service of making a single picture. Lately, the light has been changing in terms of tone and sensibility. When I was working on the Twilight series [19982002], I was just learning how to use cinematic lighting on a large scale. I had fewer resources then and a less developed idea of what I wanted to do in terms of lighting and staging. I was very excited about how light could be used in a different and radical way. When I look at many of my recent pictures, they seem quieter—more about mood and ambiance— and less literal, less theatrical. The Twilight pictures, such as the woman floating in the living room or the man sodding his house, are very meaningful to me, but I would never make them now. In the “Beneath the Roses” series, the lighting has become increasingly quiet, more textured and subtle. I am working very hard to integrate the lighting with other elements in the frame, so that it is just one part of the world of the picture.
PDN: You swim at least a mile a day at a health club overlooking the Hudson River or, when you’re in Massachusetts, in lakes. Is it true that you come up with many of the ideas for your images while sub-
PDN: The image of the woman and taxi featured in the article is fogged. Is this something you do often? Crewdson: We always have fog machines on hand, because I am very interested in creating a sense of
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atmosphere, of weather. We drive a truck with a big fog machine in the back up and down the street, so that it creates a dense layer of fog. We wait until the fog dissipates somewhat and then start making exposures with different fog densities.
House Flat w/ Two Windows
3
1 2
4 6
PDN: The subjects in your images are often small in the frame—which brings to mind the tradition of Japanese landscape painting. Why do you compose your images this way? Crewdson: I want the actual event of the picture to be small—with almost nothing actually happening. But I want to have that event take place in a much larger context, so that the drama comes out of that relationship between the small figure and the larger landscape. It’s about the isolation of the figure and the sense of being alone in a desolate landscape. There is also a sense of awe that comes out of that tradition of the small figure in the larger landscape, even a sense of the sublime. PDN: Everything is tack sharp in your images—from foreground to background—yet the 8 x 10 format has a very limited depth of field. How do you accomplish this? Crewdson: It’s hugely important to me that everything is in focus in my pictures, because I want everything to have meaning and weight and clarity. We accomplish this with exposures that are quite long, usually from one to 15 seconds (the 15-second exposures are for the set only, without the actors). We then make different exposures for the foreground, mid-ground and background and composite the sharpest parts of each exposure together in Photoshop to create a single, hyper-sharp image. PDN: What is your most important lighting tool? Crewdson: My director of photography.
8 7
13
Door
PDN: When you earned your M.F.A. in photography from Yale in 1988, you returned to New York, where you continued to develop your skills as a photographer. Those were pretty lean years. You even waited tables part-time while teaching. Did you ever consider taking commercial assignments to generate some cash? Crewdson: No, I was never even tempted. I have a
78 PDN JULY 2007
11 12
KITCHEN Hanging Light
15 14
Portal to Kitchen
Portal to Kitchen DINING ROOM
from the laundry room on camera
LIGHT #20
Mylar® reflector
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Mighty
left side of kitchen
SOURCE: Source Four 26-degree,
PURPOSE: Directional fill on boy,
(650-watt fresnel) tungsten source
(Open face focusing 2K) bouncing
750-watt ellipsoidal tungsten
from camera right
with full CTB gel plus 1/4 CTB gel,
on a floor level 4 x 4-foot Bead
LIGHT #14
source with 1/4 CTB gel plus Lee
bounced into a white foamcore
Board. Full + Half CTB
SOURCE: 100-watt A19 bulb on
#159 gel
LIGHT #27
panel inside of the house next door
PURPOSE: Front Fill for background
dimmer
PURPOSE: Set highlights and slashes
SOURCE: Source Four 19-degree, 750-
(exterior house flat is visible
(BG) House Flat
PURPOSE: To create light emanating
on or around china cabinet on
watt ellipsoidal with 3/4 CTB gel
from practical (hanging light) in
camera left
PURPOSE: Frame left foreground
25
Foamcore panel is visible in shot, as
LIGHT #8
a bluish-white square in the
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Mighty
bottom half of the window.
(Open face focusing 2K) bouncing
LIGHT #15
SOURCE: Source Four 26-degree,
LIGHT #28
PURPOSE: To create low-level bluish
on a floor level 4 x 4-foot Bead
SOURCE: Mole Richardson 9-Lite
750-watt ellipsoidal tungsten
SOURCE: Source Four 50-degree,
cast in window of exterior house
Board. Full + Half CTB
MaxiBrute (9 MFL PAR lamps) with
source with 1/4 CTB gel plus Lee
750-watt ellipsoidal with full CTB
flat visible through kitchen set
PURPOSE: Front Fill for background
1/4 CTG gel plus Lee #159 gel, hung
#159 gel
gel
window
(BG) House Flat
above kitchen and bounced into a
PURPOSE: Set highlights and slashes
PURPOSE: Frame left foreground
rigged 4 x 8-foot sheet of
on or around china cabinet on
portal fill
LIGHT #2
LIGHT #9
beadboard rigged about 12 feet off
camera left
SOURCE: LTM Pepper (200-watt
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Midget
the floor in area just camera right
fresnel) with full CTS gel
(200-watt fresnel) tungsten source
of kitchen hanging practical
18 Rug
19
Hanging Light Table
20 21
25 24
23
SOURCE: Five 60-watt frosted flame-
tip candelabra lamps on dimmer
gel
lighting fixtures backlighting
practical
PURPOSE: Bulbs for dining room
PURPOSE: Frame left vertical slash of
practical (chandelier in shot)
light used as a framing streak for
Camera: Sinar F1 8 x 10 with 280mm lens
32 31
30
KEY: All lights indicated in red. See separate list for specific technical information about each light source >
general policy not to do commercial work, because the only thing artists have is their own vision and it gets complicated when that’s appropriated for other means. PDN: Yet you shot an ad for the 2003 season of HBO’s Six Feet Under. Was this your sole commercial photography assignment? Crewdson: Ironically, before I was even contacted by HBO, my name was mentioned in one of the episodes as a photographer that an art student admired. I was watching the show at home when my name was mentioned and it was sort of startling. But I was interested in taking the assignment because it seemed like a great challenge and I liked the idea of the pictures existing way outside of the art world. I told HBO that I would accept the assignment if I had complete artistic control and I stipulated that I would
kitchen window
deliver just one final image. Those terms were met and I don’t regret taking the assignment and I don’t think I’ll do it again. PDN: Your latest productions cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. How do you finance your work? Crewdson: I co-produce the work with the three galleries—in New York, London and Beverly Hills—that represent me. They are all high-profile galleries and we all invest in the images on the front end. But it has been a very long, very slow process to get to this point. PDN: These big productions require a lot of planning and the input of a lot of people, from set designers to lighting crews to production supervisors. Does this ever get in the way of the creative process? Crewdson: One of the central misconceptions about
composition
LIGHT #16
fresnel with full CTS gel,
LIGHT #10
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Baby (10K
backlighting window
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Midget
fresnel) with 1/2 CTB gel plus Lee
SOURCE: Six #2 blue photofloods
LIGHT #30
PURPOSE: Simulating table lamp in
(200-watt fresnel) tungsten source
#159 gel
(500-watt A bulbs) with 3/4 CTB gel
SOURCE: Source Four 36-degree,
window of house next door, visible
with Lee #159 gel (no-color straw)
PURPOSE: To illuminate wooden
and Lee #159 gel in softbox,
750-watt ellipsoidal with full CTB
through kitchen window
PURPOSE: To simulate an exterior
buffet to camera right of boy
suspended 10 feet above set with
gel
four 1/4-inch hemp tie-lines ( just
PURPOSE: Frame left vertical slash of
lighting fixture backlighting LIGHT #4
27
750-watt ellipsoidal with 3/4 CTB
PURPOSE: To create top soft light
motivated by hanging kitchen
kitchen door window
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Tweenie
F
SOURCE: Source Four 50-degree,
with Lee #159 (No Color Straw) gel
26
Foreground Portal
LIGHT #29 LIGHT #22
PURPOSE: To simulate exterior
LIGHT #3
portal fill LIGHT #21
lamp/backlighting window
SOURCE: LTM Pepper 200-watt
Boy
kitchen
PURPOSE: Simulating table
Lady
29
PDN: You talk about using light to create a sense of depth, of complexities of space. How do you use light to accomplish this? Crewdson: If you have different light sources in each room, the light leads you from one room to another, and each room will have its own ambiance. On location, you can use light to texture things. If you are lighting a street, for example, certain areas stay in darkness, while others are accented with light. Light is a central way that you can define space.
Door
16
LIGHT #7
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Tweenie
through kitchen set window).
Window
28
PDN: The lights for the images featured in this article are all continuous sources. Do you ever use strobe? Crewdson: I have never used a strobe in my life.
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9
5
LIGHT #1
LIGHT #23
LIGHT #17
above the top of the frame), angled
light used to highlight the portal
SOURCE: Six Mole Richardson 1K
down at a 60-degree angle
molding
(650-watt fresnel) tungsten source
LIGHT #11
Nook Lights with 1/2 CTB gel plus
PURPOSE: Top front soft light source
with full CTB gel plus 1/4 CTB gel,
SOURCE: Mole Richardson 1K
Lee #159 gel in 6 x 8-foot softbox
motivated by hanging practical
LIGHT #31
bounced into white foamcore panel
MolePAR MFL (medium flood lens)
crafted out of black-on-black
(chandelier)
SOURCE: Source Four 36-degree,
inside of house next door (exterior
tungsten source with 1/4 CTB gel
foamcore with 1000H diffusion,
house flat is visible through kitchen
plus Lee #159 gel, bouncing into
suspended 12 feet above set floor
LIGHT #24
gel
set window) Foamcore is visible in
overhead 4 x 8-foot sheet of
and angled down at kitchen
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Baby 1K
PURPOSE: Frame right foreground
portal vertical slash
750-watt ellipsoidal with 1/4 CTB
lower half of window.
beadboard
PURPOSE: To simulate soft top-light
fresnel tungsten source with 3/4
PURPOSE: To create a bright source
PURPOSE: To create soft light
motivated by hanging practical
CTB gel bounced into a 2 x 2-foot
in the lower half of the window
motivated by hanging kitchen
(chandelier)
Rosco Cinegel Roscoflex SS
LIGHT #32
(supersoft) silver Mylar® reflector,
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Baby 10K
practical lamp LIGHT #18
with single layer of Lee 1/16
(10,000-watt fresnel) with 3/4 CTB
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Mighty
LIGHT # 12
SOURCE: Source Four 26-degree, 750-
Hampshire Frost diffusion attached
gel and medium quartz Chimera
(2K open-face focusable spot)
SOURCE: Mole Richardson 1K
watt ellipsoidal tungsten source
to reflector to graduate rapid light
Plus softbox with 1/4 grid cloth
tungsten source with full and 1/2
MolePAR MFL (medium flood lens)
with 1/4 CTB gel plus Lee #159 gel
fall-off from Mylar® material
diffusion panel and 40-degree
CTB gels, bouncing into a 4 x 4-foot
tungsten source with 1/4 CTB gel
PURPOSE: Set highlights and slashes
PURPOSE: Directional bounce fill on
“egg-crate” soft fabric grid
sheet of bead board lying flat on
plus Lee #159 gel, bouncing into
on or around china cabinet on
chairs around dining room table on
PURPOSE: Wrapping fill light for
floor
overhead 4 x 8-foot sheet of
camera left
camera left
mother and controlled fill on
PURPOSE: Front fill for exterior of
beadboard
house next door (visible through
PURPOSE: To create soft top light,
LIGHT #19
LIGHT #25
kitchen window)
motivated by hanging kitchen
SOURCE: Source Four 26-degree,
SOURCE: Source Four 19-degree, 750-
practical lamp
750-watt ellipsoidal tungsten
watt ellipsoidal tungsten source
LIGHT #5
foreground portal
source with 1/4 CTB gel plus Lee
with 1/2 CTB gel plus Lee #159 gel
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Tweenie
LIGHT #13
#159 gel
PURPOSE: Highlighting roast beef
(650-watt fresnel) tungsten source
SOURCE: Mole Richardson Baby (1K
PURPOSE: Set highlights and slashes
LIGHT #6
with 1/4 CTB gel
fresnel) tungsten source with 1/2
on or around china cabinet on
PURPOSE: To simulate exterior
CTB gel plus Bastard Amber gel
camera left
lighting fixtures raking the exterior
plus Lee # 250 (half white
fresnel with 3/4 CTB gel bounced
of the house next door (visible
diffusion) gel
into a 2 x 2-foot Rosco Cinegel
through kitchen window)
PURPOSE: To create light emanating
Roscoflex SS (supersoft) silver
LIGHT #26 SOURCE: Mole Richardson Baby 1K
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Lighting Master
my work is that these productions are absolutely controlled. Things happen all the time that change the course of a photograph. For example, I happened upon the location for the Maple Street image very spontaneously and the image came together very quickly after that. We found the taxi the day before the shoot and I found the girl in the picture very spontaneously as well. And there were other weird things that happened that affected the outcome of this shot. The location was a very rough street in Rutland, Vermont and we were warned by the police not to shoot there. Then there was this big blackout on the East Coast, and I was getting all of these frantic phone cells from New York that there was no light. All of these things added up to an interesting tension in the shot. Within the structure that we impose, unexpected things happen. There are always events that move against the order of a production. I love that tension between my need to create this perfect world and the impossibility of doing so. PDN: Your Twilight series (1998-2002) brought you international recognition and your work has been exhibited at galleries around the world. According to one magazine article, your prints sell for $20,000 to $50,000. You are on the faculty of the Department of Photography at Yale University. Yet sometimes you seem as mystified as everyone else by the psychological implications of your work. Crewdson: [Laughs.] I’m not always sure why I do what I do or what the ultimate meaning is. For instance, I was shooting open car doors a lot and I wasn’t aware of it until I went back through the pictures. I realized that I liked the idea that my pictures occur between one point and another—the “in-between” point. The open car door suggests that in-between moment. But it’s a murky process that I often can’t clearly define even for myself. I can say, though, that it’s important that a certain part of the final meaning feels mysterious or alien to me. PDN: There are certain recurring themes—such as piles, butterflies and pregnant women. Why do you keep revisiting these themes and motifs? Crewdson: All artists have a single story to tell. And the task at hand is to attempt to tell our story over and over again in reinvented terms. I would really hesitate to try to put a name to my particular story, but it is about the tension between wanting to feel connected to something and the impossibility of achieving that connection. The voyeuristic aspect of my work—looking through windows and doors or into reflections—all of these framing devices are common in my pictures and I think that suggests a certain kind of estrangement, so that there is an underlying alienation that runs throughout my work. The core issue is of wanting to feel at home in the world, but feeling slightly alien instead.
An Interview with Director of Photography Richard Sands PDN: You and Gregory have worked together now for
80 PDN JULY 2007
nearly a decade. How did you meet? Richard Sands: Dan Karp, Gregory’s camera operator, introduced us. Dan had asked me if I’d like to meet a still photographer friend of his who wanted to use light as an element in his photographs. At the time, I was suspicious in general of still photographers who needed help with lighting. I think this was because I had been approached many times in the past by photographers whose work I didn’t care for. But Dan pushed the subject and Greg and I were introduced. Greg told me about a few ideas that he planned to shoot locally. His ideas were right up my alley— Norman Rockwell meets David Cronenberg— so I came on board. PDN: What’s it like to collaborate with Greg? Sands: We “mind-meld” for the most part. Things haven’t changed much since we first met. By that time in my life, I had been creating serious light for over 20 years, while Gregory had been creating seriously amazing images for some time. I trust him very much. Our egos don’t get in the way at all. PDN: Much of your career was spent working on motion picture projects. It must involve some paradigm shifting to segue from lighting films on large Hollywood sets to working with a fine-art photographer on the East Coast. Sands: The greatest asset that motion provides is the ability to drift into different compositions and change the framing to drive the scene or follow the action. You can also shift focus to change the viewer’s perspective and provide a glimpse of various contextual details. The challenge with still photography is to create that three-dimensional feeling within a fixed, twodimensional plane. I use light to drive the composition—and the story that Greg is trying to tell. Direction is my first priority, but light shape, quality, color and intensity are also important. The light must be balanced and blended. I also use light to bring out the appropriate textures and create the appropriate feeling of depth in each area of the frame. Once this is accomplished, the image will come alive, with many areas of interest to the viewer. But the light must also draw the viewer’s focus to the main interest and, in this way, be able to tell the story. PDN: What is the greatest number of lights that you’ve used in a Crewdson image? Sands: I’ve used as many as 136 lights. We did an exterior rain shot with 120 units, and there are several other shots with more than 80 units. All placed with love. PDN: You talk about “keeping the light off of the set as much as possible” and “breaking up the light as much as possible.” In fact, one reviewer called you a “master of chiaroscuro.” Can you talk about the considerations that drive these lighting techniques? Sands: Gregory’s imagery depends heavily on the mystery of emotion. There are several recurring themes in his work that are assigned emotional
value. Because the viewer doesn’t need to see everything in order to understand, I expose certain areas to allow for just the slightest hint of detail on the negative. PDN: Are there any lighting tools that are indispensable to your work? Sands: I am a big believer in mirrors when I’m working on a soundstage. Whether they are 4 feet square, 4 inches square or convex, they can double or even triple the throw of light if you’re limited in soundstage space. It doesn’t seem to matter how big the stage is—the set’s footprint always seems to be too big to leave mirrors out of the equation. I use the convex mirrors to quadruple the hardness of the shadows. They invariably diminish the output of your luminaire by three stops, but offer extreme hardness when needed. Another tool I seem to use a lot is black lace (the kind you buy at a fabric store) to create shadow patterns. I also use ellipsoidal sources quite a bit. PDN: Gregory always shoots on 8 x 10 color negative film. How does this affect your approach to lighting his images? Sands: Because we are always trying to achieve an f-stop of 32.5, we have to use intense luminaries. HMI sources have the best lumens per watt efficiency, so they are generally the units of choice when we are shooting exteriors. Otherwise, we’d need bigger generators, more cable and larger lighting crews. PDN: Often, the color temperature of lighting for house windows and porch lights is warm rather than cool. Why did you go cooler with your color temperature to create a whiter light inside the houses and on the porches in the Maple Street image? Sands: Given the story that Greg was trying to tell, I didn’t want to use warm light, which would make the girl’s house feel inviting. I thought the house should feel more sterile and not like a home that wants her in the family sense of the word. PDN: What was your primary lighting objective for the Maple Street image featured in this article? Sands: The girl stands between her present realities: the relationship in the taxi and her relationship with the house on frame right. I wanted to give importance to these two realities, while establishing the surrounding neighborhood as a backdrop to her drama. PDN: And for the Sunday Roast shot? Sands: This is a masterpiece image with a masterpiece set. My main objective was not to screw it up with the wrong light! Seriously, I wanted to use lighting to enhance the “normalcy” of the kitchen and reinforce the emotions that the kitchen imagery evokes. I wanted to make the mid-ground, where the woman and boy are sitting, a bit more moody, but still give the impression that there’s hope. The foreground lighting pretty much tells the real story about quality of these people’s lives: very grim.