The
pre-Raphaelite painting by Sir John Everett Millais is a well known across
the world representation of Ophelia. It has inspired many painters and even at
least one photographer. Gregory Crewdson’s interpretation of it is part of his
series “Twilight”.
Gregory Crewdson
describes his inspirations for this image:
“this is a woman who has been living in this house her entire life and
who has led, up to this point, an everyday existence. She comes down the
stairs, and her living room is flooded. She just accepts the situation and
submerges herself in the water. That's why the slippers are on the stairs and
her robe is on the bannister. I see this as a cathartic event, something both
beautiful and sad.”
As always
lots of attention was paid to each single detail in the final image. The things
you often take for granted while watching his photographs involved lots of work
from different groups of people living nearby the shooting location, i.e. NorthAdams, MA.
For
example, the curtains were donated by Country Curtains, the pictures on the
wall were donated by a local wedding photographer, furniture and books were
donated by Goodwill. If you look close enough you will notice that the book on
the table is titled “Deep Harbor”.
That’s
actually the thing that draws me the most to his work, you need to look closer
and not just glimpse at it to really see all of it.