Photographer Gregory Crewdson Teams Up With A24 for Limited Edition Print

Eerie photographer Gregory Crewdson has made an unexpected collaboration with A24 Films to mark the release of Eddington — a movie about small town politics during the COVID pandemic.

Crewdson is known for his cinematic photos of suburban life, his production is similar to moviemaking, involving a large crew and elaborate equipment. It was precisely this type of photo that Crewdson pulled off on the set of Eddington.

According to Variety, he was invited by director Ari Aster (Midsommar and Hereditary) whom the photographer admires.

“I’m a big fan of Ari’s and I love his films,” Crewdson tells Variety. “I feel very connected to them in terms of their aesthetic and their sensibility. My pictures are very concerned with the psychological underpinnings of everyday life, so there’s a lot of cross connection.”

Aster and A24 gave Gregory Crewdson full creative control to craft an image that aligned visually with the themes of Eddington. The studio collaborated closely with Crewdson, bringing in his own director of photography and lighting team, and working alongside the film’s production and art departments. They also secured Joaquin Phoenix to appear in the center of the shot as his character, Joe Cross.

For the shoot, Crewdson took over the entire town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, where Eddington was filmed. He replaced the town’s streetlights and added fog machines to achieve his signature atmosphere. As with all of Crewdson’s work, the photo was taken during twilight hours.

Aster says that Crewdson’s work has inspired his own, telling Variety he admires “the way [his photos] render the mundane so strange and eerie” and their “extreme formalism, the painterly quality of the compositions and the vibrancy and control of color.”

Variety reports that Crewdson had a difficult time convincing Phoenix to be in the photo; the actor told him that he doesn’t like to be photographed. “He got into it,” says Crewdson. “I think we both got what we needed from the experience.”

The resulting image is on sale as a limited edition fine art print by A24 for $250. Crewdson has signed each one.