Monday, 9 December 2013
I've been doing some research to understand exactly what this picture is about, and what is happening in this picture from different art critiques interpretations; and have found some really good breakdowns of the scene description plus ideas about the narrative from these two sources.
Ophelia by Gregory Credson
Post By Donbullock
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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.
http://donaldbullock.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/ophelia-by-gregory-credson.html
CONSTRUCTED REALITIES AND METAPHOTOGRAPHY:
GREGORY CREWDSON'S TWILIGf-ITSERIES
by
Ashlee Cook
A thesis submitted to the faculty of
The University of Utah
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
IN
Art History
Department of Art and Art History
The University of Utah
December 2009
CHAPTER 2
TWILIGHT AND PHOTOGRAPHIC TRUTH
Gregory Crewdson's photograph Untitled (Ophelia) depicts an ethereal woman
floating in the center of a flooded living room. The walls are lined with floral wallpaper;
family portraits hang in a row above the stairs. An exterior light source muffled by
shutter-covered windows adds a strange atmosphere to the dark room. The interior is
decorated with contemporary furniture; a bookshelf, a table, a couch and a chair all half
submerged in the still, dark water. Little traces of life are scattered around the typical
suburban house, pedestrian objects like coats hung on hangers, slippers discarded on
stairs, a glass of water and an open pill jar on the table. The woman's translucent
nightgown emphasizes her pale, limp body. Her dark, cold eyes remain open and her lips
slightly apart.
Ophelia is both haunting and alluring. The mystery surrounding the woman in
this photograph and the implied narrative of her drowning provoke more questions than
answers. The carefully crafted composition including the line of the stairs, the curve of
the couch, and the three diagonal windows on the door that are reflected in the pool of
water brings the focus continually back to the woman in the center of the image. The
strange lighting highlighting her cheekbones, chest, and hands emphasizes her beauty, and simultaneously, her death. It is easy to fall into the photograph, be held captive by it
much like a child stationed, eyes transfixed in front of a horror film in the hazy aftermath
of tragedy.
Conclusion
From this research, it has definetly helped me towards analysing this photograph from an experienced/studied point of view; saving me time on trying to understand it myself. This has also helped me to deconstruct the picture to find the different elements in the scene such as, the slippers on the stairs; the pills on the table next to the glass of water, to which, whilst doing so i'm identifying the different sound elements in the picture and its giving me ideas towards different narratives for this photographs story.
