Espace Louis Vuitton München Dedicates New Show to American Photographer Gregory Crewdson

The Espace Louis Vuitton München is proud to dedicate its new show to American photographer Gregory Crewdson. Carrying out the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s commitment to mount international projects and reach a broader audience, two exclusive series from the Collection, Dream House (2002) and Cathedral of the Pines (2014), are presented for the first time, within the framework of the “Hors-les-murs” program which unfolds at the Espaces Louis Vuitton in Tokyo, Munich, Venice, Beijing, Seoul and Osaka.

For over three decades, Gregory Crewdson has been a pivotal figure in photography, crafting a contemplative portrayal of middle-class America—a nation whose wide-open eyes are dazzled by the lights of a fading dream. His work weaves personal elements with the depiction of an America in decline, drawing inspiration from dimmed lighting and deserted streets. Crewdson’s photographs are meticulously staged like film scenes, capturing moments that resemble frames from films that don’t exist.

Crewdson seamlessly merges the realms of cinema and photography by crafting his works like film stills, featuring enigmatic characters and scenarios that unveil the darker facets of the American dream. His intricately composed scenes, dramatized with sophisticated lighting in both natural and artificial settings, are simultaneously dreamlike and strikingly real, evoking a “disturbing strangeness” in seemingly familiar contexts. By incorporating stylistic elements from film noir, psychological drama, and fantasy, his photos intentionally evoke a sense of déjà vu, enhancing their unsettling and hallucinatory quality.

His fascination with the strangeness and mystery lurking beneath the comforting facade of small-town America aligns him stylistically with David Lynch, particularly in films like Blue Velvet, where the camera delves into the grass to reveal a human ear teeming with ants. Since the mid-1990s, especially with his Hover series (1996–1997), his work has centered on depicting the everyday life of rural America as a stage for exploring repressed desires, anxieties, and fears. The sobriety and austerity of these photos impart a documentary-like quality, contrasting sharply with the richness in detail and color found in his later works, like the Dream House series (2002). This collection, characterized by large-format photos set in twilight and nighttime, captures moments when rationality yields to darker forces, even penetrating the intimate confines of the home. From this point forward, Crewdson began working with a full film crew, much like a director, meticulously planning his productions. The Cathedral of the Pines series (2014) marks a significant phase, exuding an intimacy shaped by the locations linked to the personal life of the photographer, his partner and collaborator, Juliane Hiam, and their children.