SJOTIME PHOTOGRAPHY

 

Gregory Crewdson

Boy With Hand In Drain

2001-02

Digital C-Print

 

This photograph was taken by Gregory Crewdson who is an American photographer who shoots unordinary photographs. His photographs are very cinematic in the fact that they look like movie shots as oppossed to regular everyday shots. Crewdson prefers to shoot in Massachusetts in areas represented as small towns in America, but he will also shoot on stages to build his own scene. He searches neighborhoods for the perfect shot and has such a good relationship with the mayor and fire department that if he asks to burn down a house or shut down an entire street for his shot, it is done. His photographs require an immense amount of people amongst his crew. When taking pictures, the atmosphere is like a movie set with cranes and big lights used. The camera remains perfectly still the entire shoot. 40-50 plates of negatives are taken of the same photograph, with small changes such as aperture and lighting slightly changing from frame to frame. Once the "hero" negative is chosen, Crewdson works off of it and adds certain aspects of other negatives to it to make it the best it can be. Through this long process, Crewdson is left with photographs that show an unexpected mystery in an ordinary setting.

 

Boy With Hand In Drain reveals a very unexpected mystert sense.  The scene is a familiar bathroom scene with a boy reaching down the shower drain. The bottom half of the picture shows what is past the drain that this boy is so nonchalantly sticking his hand down. It is a dark, spooky place underneath the bathroom/house that most people would not think about. When sticking your hand down a kitchen drain or a shower one to reach for something dropped, did you ever wonder what that area under the drain looked like? We may never know, but Crewdson gives us something to think about. One of Crewdson's goals in his photos is to reveal fears people have. This may very well be a fear of people. Movies have been known to suck children down a drain into the unknown. The color in this photograph captures my attention right away because it is very movie like. When watching behind the scene action of movies being made, color is very dull compared to what the final product looks like. This photograph looks like the final product of a movie. It is so surreal, yet so normal that it makes you question, what places are there in this world that I don't see everyday?