Gregory Crewdson

Cathedral of the Pines (2013-14) was produced in the rural woodlands surrounding Becket, Massachusetts, a small town that was first settled in 1740 and home to the titular forest trail the work is named after.

There’s a pervasive stillness that exists in the works of this collection. As we viewers tour these pictures, we find the quietude of the cabins and forest landscapes become hosts to a dark and meditative dwelling of the subjects that populate these places. As with much of Crewdson’s work, the loneliness and alienation of his subjects are deeply pronounced, and the cool blue and green hues that saturate the frames characterize the emotional content to pair with the unusual encounters received by their viewers.

While the domestic interior scenes extend a trademark narrative form that the photographer is widely recognized for, Crewdson’s landscape scenes enrichen the series by taking inspiration from 19th century American landscape painting. The exactitudes of their geometrical compositions contextualize intense emotional charge within the context of classical renderings. Cathedral of the Pines thus becomes an update to the legacy of ‘Americana’, and a revisionist practice which sees the lore of American ideals become overtaken with the internal disturbances of its unwell occupants.