Plate 7

Between 1998 and 2002, Gregory Crewdson created the “Twilight” series. It consists of 40 very elaborately staged and large photographs. They delve into the relationship between North American homes, landscape, and the imagination. His photos are striking in the way that they reveal a familiar suburban landscape as a place of anxiety and wonder. Typically these photographs contain a single isolated person or figure, giving off a glimpse of shame that almost shouldn’t be there. This idea causes the photos to feel slightly awkward. For example, Crewdson constructs a typical living room setting. The colors in the room are neutral, there are paintings on the wall, furniture in all the right places, a view into the dining room, a few lamps on-one even in the closest-but in the center of the photograph lies a man crouching on the hardwood floor simply gazing at beams of light shooting out from it. He dug out these beams himself. I find it a little odd… For one, if I cut open my floor to find rays of light I’d be a little frantic and confused, but the man is quiet and practically mesmerized. Secondly, it’s as if the room’s telling more of the story. At first glance I did not realize this. The objects within the room are specifically placed to make it seem like the man was previously eating or watching T.V. This leaves me wondering why the man suddenly chose to cut open his floor. Was a small stream of light already exposed?

This photograph, Plate 7, presents a story. Reading the photo more, I notice there’s only one hat on the rack. I’m assuming the man lives by himself, but the table in the corner appears to have enough food for two. I wonder if there’s someone else, waiting in the kitchen perhaps. Regardless, the man is clearly infatuated with the light as if he has just discovered something new about a place that’s always been so ordinary to him. Then I realized why this photograph belongs in the “Twilight” series. The man has been awoken at the very moment of twilight, his moment of twilight. The light represents reality; therefore the man has had a revelation of the real. That’s specifically what this photo reveals. The light exposes the inevitable drama in life. What we don’t know is what the man actually took from the light. Is he suddenly aware of the structure of reality while we remain in the dark, concerned with our made-up beliefs?