Sanctuary

This new group of forty-one black-and-white photographs is the first work that Crewdson has produced outside the United States, shot on location at the legendary Cinecittà studios on the outskirts of Rome. Digitally photographed and produced with minimal reworking, Sanctuary is Crewdson's first black and white series since Hover (1996-1997), where he has moved beyond the construction of the surreal human drama that drove previous series to depicting landscapes virtually devoid of human presence. The abandoned outdoor film sets have become the subject of, rather than the mere setting for, his pictures.

Moving through the empty streets of “Ancient Rome” at the beginning and end of the day, he has captured the palpable atmospheres of melancholy lurking at every twist and turn, cloaked in shadow or suddenly illuminated by a shaft of daylight. Although the links to the great chroniclers of urban environments such as Eugène Atget and William Eggleston are evident, Crewdson has added a new layer to the genre by searching for his particular form of verité within the artificial leftovers of cinematic reality.