53. GREGORY CREWDSON: BRIEF ENCOUNTERS

 a photographer who doesn't carry a camera or really even take the photos; the eye of a filmmaker, but freezing the film into just one frame.  he creates elaborately staged images, with attention to every detail.  the final products are large.....maybe 5 ft x 7 ft?  they are nearly all filmed at twilight, in small dying massachusetts towns, because he uses lighting to get the right effect.  as he notes, he has about 20 minutes to get the shot right.  some are shot on sound stages.  he credits a museum trip with his father, to see a diane arbus exhibit, for igniting his creative spirit.  liking a girl in high school, who was a photographer, prompted him to take a photo class and sealed the deal on his future life work.  haunting a certainly a desciptive word for his work.  he captures a moment in time, and insists he really doesn't care about the minute before or the minute after the image.  the filming took place over a 4 year period while gregory created his "beneath the roses" exhibit.  his eye focuses on the secrets beneath the scene; a strategy he relates to experiences when he was growing up in trying to overhear the psychoanalytic counseling sessions his father held in the basement office.  the images certainly make the viewer wonder just what's up; it's pretty powerful photography that involves dozens of people making one man's vision a reality.