The work of Gregory Crewdson is generally dark with cool colors – he relies heavily on blues and greens. Additionally, he incorporates perspective into almost all his pieces. This gives each photo visible depth, and emphasizes the emptiness and solitude which is so often the focus of the piece. Crewdson exhibits multifaceted use of perspective; often, the perspective is traditional – rows of houses, diminishing streets – but at times, he achieves fascinating perspectives through the use of mirrors – which increase the possible perspectives one may see from a given angle. He also uses doorways and windows, which often repeatedly recede, giving the viewer an ever-shrinking portal with which to see his melancholy subjects.
It is clear that Crewdson treats his photos, making them look more like colored pencil drawings than photographs. This gives them an eerie innocence, which contrasts powerfully with their subject matter. It gives the viewer the sense that those within the photograph are themselves not aware of their desolate circumstances. Crewdson uses light very specifically – within one photograph, light in specific areas will be dull, while other light will be bright. This increases the eery nature of the photos. The light/dark contrast within his photos is generally minimal. He treats colors very similarly; often, where the light is brightest in his photo, the colors will be saturated, and where the light is dullest, the colors will be muddy. His palate is generally cool.
I selected the above photograph because it exhibits many of these traits - the varying angles, his favored colors, and the particular use of light. It is a fine example of his work.
Teun Hocks’ pieces, although visually similar to Gregory Crewdson’s, are very whimsical. Their content is light-hearted. Hocks’ subject is frequently an elderly man in business attire, performing bizarrely innocuous tasks. He creates a storybook feel in each photo by manipulating the landscape – the horizon line sometimes follows a slight curve, as though the earth were quite a bit smaller than it is. Furthermore, Hocks manipulates the sky such that it appears as flat as a piece of stage scenery. This technique gives his surreal work an intimate quality. Were it lacking such comfortable nuance, his work might take on a more depressing feel, like the work of Crewdson.
Hocks’ pieces have a similar muted color palette – Hocks incorporates browns in almost all his photographs, specifically in the shadowed areas. Additionally, the colors which are not brown are often shades. Hock’s pieces are frequently back-lit, so that the face of the subject is in darkness. This gives the viewer the sense that whatever discoveries there are to be made in this bizarre world, the elderly man is looking for them in the wrong direction.
I selected the image above because it, like the Crewdson photo, is an informative reference for Hocks' work. It exhibits many of the most striking qualities - the curved landscape, the flat sky, and the shaded colors.
In his photographs, Jeff Wall uses perspective in varying ways. At times, there is so much space included in the photograph that the lines seem to bend – this is often the case when he places his subject in the lower third of the photo, with the background extending into the upper two thirds. These bending perspective lines, as well as the heavily, almost awkwardly places subject, create an aura of emptiness and unease. However, many of his photos are almost flat, totally lacking vanishing points. This is the case when he sets his subjects against a wall of some kind. The plane of his photo, then, is split into quadrants by the natural lines of the subject against the wall.
Jeff Wall works in both in color, and in black and white. His black and white work is very soft. Although his photos are striking, he does not seem to use a high filter, preferring instead the fine detail that is offered by a low filter. In his color photographs, he doesn’t appear to distort the color at all – everything appears as though one were really looking at it. However, capturing the world in a photo can create both hue and value distortion, and it is probable that Wall has made a conscious effort to make his photos appear as natural as possible. Wall’s photos are often very complex, often capturing a great deal of debris or clutter. It is possible the Wall has chosen to keep his photos looking realistic so as to emphasize the enormity of the detritus he photographs.
The photograph above shows many of the traits most common to Wall's work. It is an excellent example of his warped perspective, and his emphasis on realistic color and light. This is, however, only a single facet of Wall's diverse styles.
Cindy Sherman’s photographs are anomalous among these four artists. This is due both to her choice of subject and her mode of representation. Her work is in the vein of fashion photography, and feels different than Wall’s journalistic photos and Hocks’ and Crewdson’s painterly photographs. Sherman also mainly photographs women in highly staged poses – with a great deal of makeup and costume. They are plainly aware of the camera, which differs greatly from the photographs of the other three artists – their subjects do not traverse the boundary between photograph and viewer.
Sherman’s subjects are often surrounded by plain but significant objects, which communicate the intention of the photograph. At other times, her subjects are surrounded by nothing at all, save colorful, flat backdrops. In way, her photographs are definitionally shallow, which perhaps communicates her thoughts on treatment of women in fashion and culture. The colors in her photos vary greatly; at times they are vibrant, at times they are muted, at times she works only in black and white. Each application of color depends on the message she is communicating with each photograph.
I chose the above photo because it makes clear how different Sherman is from these three other photographers. Her work is colorful and garish, while the work of Crewdson, Hocks and Wall is muted and understated.
