Beneath the Roses by Gregory Crewdson.
I am using this as a sort of massive Case study if you will of a Narrative. I found this in a huge book by him and i was enthralled by it. It is just so amazing. I looked at the pictures like it was a movie for at least an hour while i was analysing all the images. To me it reads as a complex Narrative with a wide story arc like a beautiful film. Like Joel Sternfield it kind of captures an American View of life in the Suburbs, but unlike Sternfelds work, this is all meticulously set up and staged with HUGE sets like in a movie. In this case study i write my thoughts as they occur about the work, remembering what i though the first time i viewed it and writing it as if i am viewing it for the first time.
This is frame one. In it you see a car parked at a red light. the door to the drivers side is open and there is no-one there and no one in shot who it could be. the passenger is in the passenger seat and the red light is changing to amber, this indicates as well as the missing driver that the scene has been like this for a while. It looks like a dusk time of day also a sign of change. I wonder why has the driver left the scene and why is the passenger still in the seat. It seems they might have argued or something with major emotional consequences has happened.
Here we see a different red light, the light is also at amber, again there is a car waiting this could be a flash back from the previous picture, however the car is different . the streets are fully wet in this picture, however in the previous picture they were a bit wet but they were mostly drying up.
The scene shifts to a more suburban area with just places of residence rather than peoples houses and shops. the scenery is completely different from before . there is the visual of the car with the door open, this time it is the passenger door, it is a different car again, there are some people sitting and standing on the porch of the house to the right looking towards the car. it looks like baloons and water have fallen out of the car. what has happened for baloons and water to fall out of the car? is it a celebration or birthday?
Here we have a woman in night time holding her jumper, she is stood in the road with cracks in it, again it is a residential area but it is different to the one in the previous plate. again there is a car with the door open, this imagery is repeated it must be building to something.
Here a different story arc with a different set of characters are involved with some sort of journey or adventure. They are in a different area where there are train tracks away from a town or residential area. Perhaps it is a flashback to when the people in the other pictures where younger. the people look as if they are moving very slowly and are looking for something. they are not all walking together, they seem like they must know each other but have spent enough in each others company that they dont need to stand right next to each other. Perhaps they are trying to jump on a freight train as it crosses the country.
Here it would seem that the characters are looking in the woods for something, It looks like they have come to the spot they were looking for. the torches indicate it is dark and they are searching, they still all look quite dejected. but in this plate they are together rather than so spread out.
This seems like it could be the spot the people were looking for . you can see that it is a different location thuogh. Perhaps the people did not find all these suitcases and where looking in the wrong place. or maybe this is a flashback to the person who buried it. i think the former rather than the latter as it seems this man has driven here and taken all these suitcases out and flung them away, it seems like he is looking for one specific one. as the other are strewn and all still shut, he has this suitcase and is about to open it, what is in them? why are they so important and how to they connect to the first story arc that we saw?
This seems to be anew story arc. The woman is looking away from the bed with the man on the bed what i assume is her husband or partner. The woman is looking at a tiny bird on the dresser that is barely noticeable against the paraphernalia on the dresser and in the room, it looks quite lifelike with its pose, i suppose it is a model but i am not sure if it is meant to be alive in the story. the woman looks like the bird is giving her some sort of meaning or thought process and she is coming to realise something. the man looks also like he is contemplating something. perhaps there has been a death in the family and times are hard or perhaps they are contemplating divorce. are these people related to the people in the last story arc?
The woman is sitting on a bed in what looks like a childs room, there is blood on the sheets. it reads to me that her daughter has had her first period. it also could read that the woman is in her childs room that might have died in the past and she is sat on the daughters bed remembering her and wondering what life might have been like had the daughter lived.
Here is another picture with the imagery of a car with the door open. it is a cityscape. It looks to bea mother returning to her car, again the door is open, this time the back passenger door is open, it looks to be the passenger has run away, perhaps it is the persons child, and the person is used to them running away. the body language of them woman is resigned and it just looks like she is thinking "oh not again". Perhaps the rebellious child is related to the Story Arc of the people next to the train tracks.
and again there is the imagery of the car with the door open. it is a different car everytime. i wonder if it is the same car as that was in the woods earlier in the narrative also there is a suitcase next to the car like the suitcases in the woods, perhaps this is THE suitcase that the people were looking for! i wonder is this one of the same crossroads from earlier where cars were half abandoned. I wonder what the man is looking at and why he has stepped out into the rain. it looks as if he is looking at a phone screen, though it might get ruined in the rain. perhaps it is a map or a piece of paper with a note of map co-ordinates.
I think here we are back to the story Arc of the people walking along the train lines. I wonder if they are making another venture to find the suitcases or whether this is a flashback to their previous attempt. the burning building is very interesting as the people do not seem concerned or much interested in the building on fire, perhaps they lit the fire, though it looks like they are walking towards and past the building. perhaps they have seen it from a long way off and are so engaged and tired by their task that they just are not bothered by the fire.
Here perhaps we are introduced to some new characters. They are laying on the mattress its is in the middle of the scene in the middle of mud and mess. this makes it seem like an abandoned area. they are laying naked as if in a post coital state. the are not embracing but the woman lays facing away from the man and he lays on his back. the area seems abandoned but the lights are on in the building, if they were the ones who left the lights on it would seem strange that they would go outside to do that.
This so far to me is a key plate in the narrative, it is strange as there is so much action and drama in this photograph and yet it is so still at the same time.
I saw this photograph in the V&A last summer, I had previously been aware of Gregory Crewdsons work and I thought it was good but it didnt majorly catch my eye like this piece does. Here we see a snowy scene with houses and a figure standing in the doorway of a house with children's swings to the left.
Why is the woman standing in the middle of the snowy drive and not walking to the warmth of her house?
What are the people in the car talking about?
This is the Cover photo. it shows a boy under a bridge looking up. perhaps the walkers are walking over the bridge and he can hear them and is wondering who they are and why they are walking on an abandoned train tracks
This is one of my favourite images in the series. I like it for the large scale photograph of the bridge and all the water and scenery and of the direction on the actors for what they have to do from far away from them.
This is another image that if i had to pick a handful of images to describe the series this would be one of the stand out images. who is the mother? is she related to to woman under the bridge or on the mattress outside and this is a jump in time?
thi looks similar to other pictures of houses like this, like one of the first images of the balloons falling out of the car
Another image of what looks like post coital moment and the people are not embracing but rather are contemplating and melancholy.
I like that the series seem to start in late summer and it is such a big piece that it transitions through the season to mid winter with all the snow.
This ending picture is beautiful. it reminds the viewer of the very first image of the series where the car was parked on the traffic light in a transitional state. this picture is in the snow with again the lights changing. it is also at the dusk time. this time the car is driving away from the scene and actually appears to be driving this time.
