Analyzing Gregory Crewdson "Unititled" Beckoning Busdriver

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Postmodernism was essentially a move away from modernism. While modernism showcased structured and non-manipulated images, postmodernism was a departure from those methods in photography. Unlike modernism, postmodernism embraced the idea that if you looked hard enough, the truth would eventually break down. Not only that, but truth was seen as an illusion because there is doubt. Originality no longer exists. Authority was no longer trusted because it was believed that those with authority were more concerned with staying in power. Postmodernism is like a rebellious teenager, challenging all past idea’s about what traits photography had to have to be considered “art.” This style also dealt with questioning reality, decoding hidden messages, doing things differently, appropriation, taking something old and making it new, and creating a false reality. Postmodernism has a lot of similarities to pop art, installation art, and Dadaism. There were a lot of pieces in the Emily Fisher Landau exhibit that had traits of postmodernism in them, but one piece in particular stuck out to me.
Gregory Crewdson’s “Untitled” (Beckoning Bus Driver) grabbed my attention immediately. The scene seems to be shot a little after sundown. There is a small home in the foreground, and a red barn in the background. The house has lights on inside, the front door open, and a large window. Through a large front window the curtains are pulled back showing a family inside. A man sits in a large reclining chair; next to him a young girl sits on a striped couch. Both are faced away from the window, a slight glow on their faces indicates a T.V. in the room out of sight. There is a cement path outside the house that leads to an empty street. A young girl stands on t...

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...s bus driver even out at night? There are no other children on the bus, so where does he plan to take her? Is he even a bus driver? When is the family going to notice she has gone outside alone? Or will they be glued to the T.V. till she’s gone? The scene holds a lot of questions, and scarily, it’s a scene that is very familiar.
Crewdson has led us into his fantasy world, engrossed by the beautiful lighting and fantastical scenes. His photographs keep viewers constantly thinking, questing the truth. He challenges the conventional way of operating by using every imaginable kind of production technique in a single “frozen” moment while still trying to capture the “prefect” image. It’s these cinematic details that make his images even more persuasive. This photograph was never captured in real -life, but it has qualities that pitch the human eye to its own reality.

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