That said, what are the “identical” mechanisms Colberg suggests that link these artists to their socialist-realist predecessors? Leibovitz, Crewdson, and Gursky produce a kind of capitalist propaganda that, like socialist realism, “does not aim to depict an actually existing reality but instead presents a code that can be read by its intended spectators.” Colberg derives his description of socialist realism from art historian Boris Groys, who suggests that this code entails stories about heroes, demons, transcendental events, and real-world consequences that serve the messaging needs of the powerful. In this formulation, Colberg’s neoliberal realists make images that perpetuate, or even celebrate, unjust power structures.
Photographer Gregory Crewdson, who has inspired nearly as much awe for the size of his productions as for his evocative, cinematic work, told an audience at Look3 Festival of the Photograph on Saturday that he’s just starting a new body of work, and he’s
“It’s always [my] interest in trying to tell a story through light and color. That’s essentially what I’m attempting to do,” he explained. “Photography has a very limited capacity to tell a story. Whatever story we could manage in the end remains a mystery. I’ve always loved that about photography: its restriction, its containment.”
Gregory Crewdson is a New York photographer who takes these amazingly surreal, production-heavy photos that evoke this really surreal and almost creepy feeling to them. The way he lights is photos is crazy, almost like a movie would be set up.
Check under the cut for a video of him talking about his process as well as a behind the scenes of a shoot he did.
