Gregory Crewdson (American, born 1962) is a leading contemporary photographer known for elaborately choreographed, large-scale works that rival large paintings in size and detail, and cinema with their dramatic content. The creation of carefully staged, tableau-like photographs has been a significant vein in contemporary photography since the 1980s, and Crewdson is acknowledged as one of the most influential practitioners of the genre.

In his images, Crewdson reworks the American suburb into a stage-set for inexplicable, often disturbing, events that usually take place at twilight. Working on an epic scale, Crewdson has developed a process akin to the making of a feature film to create what he calls ‘frozen moments’, with the help of a large crew to shoot and then develop the images in post-production.

Every detail of these images is meticulously planned and staged, in particular the lighting. In some instances lighting and special effects such as artificial rain or dry ice are used to enhance a natural moment of twilight, whilst in others an effect of twilight is entirely artificially created. Crewdson’s images depict uncanny events that momentarily transport and transform actors from the homeliness and security of their suburban context, creating a sense of what the artist calls ‘psychological realism’. ‘Beneath the Roses’ is Crewdson’s most recent body of work, created from 2003-2007.