surreal – ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon

Photography by Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson uses Hollywood techniques to create glossy Edward Hopper-esque portraits of American life. He works like a Film Director with an enormous crew and artificial lighting. But where Hopper stripped life bare, Credson’s images offer an overabundance of detail.

Crewdson’s photographs usually take place in small-town America, but are dramatic and cinematic. They feature often disturbing, surreal events. His photographs are elaborately staged and lit using crews familiar with motion picture production and lighting large scenes using motion picture film equipment and techniques. He has cited the photographer Diane Arbus and the films “Vertigo”, “The Night of the Hunter”, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “Blue Velvet” and “Safe” as having influenced his style.

Photography by George Christakis

George Christakis is a twenty eight year old photographer born in Crete who mixes photography and digital painting. His style can be described as a mix of conceptual, experimental and surreal, with more emphasis on the content and composition. He began by taking pure photographs on the streets, but soon raised his interest in creating his own dreamlike images.

Most of the images were created by digitally manipulating pure photographs. They often depict a sole protagonist – the only person in sight – experiencing intense or emotional situations in strange environments.

“I usually create pictures with some moody, strange environments, and maybe unusual colors. I suffer from color blindness; therefore I can’t really see the true colors. In the past I used to work only with black and white pictures. Now I’m trying the colors as well, hoping that I won’t do something excess.

There are only one or two characters in my images. I want to create a dreamlike picture, a strange world where our protagonist should be alone, without having someone to share the moment. That’s an important factor for me. My personal view is that moments are mostly made to be shared. We share moments with each other every day and create some feelings, mood, etc, together. There are also some daydreaming, or just dream moments, where we are alone without having the ability to share our fantasy picture with others.” – George Christakis