Ophelia by Gregory Credson

Gregory Crewdson created a series of twenty large scale photographs titled Beneath the Roses. One of the photographs in this series is Ophelia. Crewdson is known for creating images of surreal suburbia. The production of these works is very expensive. Crewdson creates elaborate sets that some critics love while others say make the subjects appear lifeless and flat. I find that he creates an atmosphere and feeling of awe that is unattainable without constructing a movie set like environment. Crewdson uses both interior, private spaces such as home interiors and exterior spaces comprised of up to multiple city blocks when creating sets for his photographs.

In Ophelia, Crewdson takes the setting of a flooded suburban house and introduces a floating female corpse. The furniture and style of the interior of the house is very plain and could be almost any older middle income suburban home. The introduction of water, as if the neighborhood has experienced a flood would make for an unsettling photograph, but Crewdson takes the process one step further and introduces a floating corpse to the composition. The introduction of the corpse should make the scene demented, but in a strange way it matches the calm water and adds a weird, all be it morbid, tranquility to the scene. Crewdson divides the aspects of his set for Ophelia into an upper half and a lower half. The upper half of Ophelia is mundane and normal suburbia while the lower half, defined by the water level is mysterious, surreal and sinister.

Crewdson creates a private space that he invites the viewers to peak into. The lines of the stairs, corner of the room and furniture guide the viewer’s gaze to the floating corpse. The corpse is framed by the flood water and the viewer is left to guess what lies just below the waterline. The position and pose of the female corpse is of interest. Instead of floating lifelessly, limbs sprawled, the corpse is rigidly posed with arms to her side and feet together. The corpse creates an unnaturally harsh horizontal line.

The lighting in Ophelia helps create the atmosphere and define the space. The exterior light, seen through the window hints at the time being during the day, perhaps after the storm. In contrast the interior ambient light is blue in tint hinting at a night setting. The most disturbing source of light is the lamp located in the center right of the scene and the reflection of this lamp directly below. What makes this light source disturbing is that the lamp should not be on because the power outlet is below the water line.

Ophelia is only one photograph from Gregory Crewdson’s Beneath the Roses series. The cost and time of this series rivals the budget of some movies. Crewdson creates entire worlds for his viewers to immerge themselves into. Gregory Crewdson uses extensive set design, familiar environments and common props in conjunction with surreal characters and disturbing natural events to construct a unique atmosphere that will make almost any viewer pause and think.