Melancholy, pensiveness, listlessness, boredom and fatigue are the
states that seem to appeal to contemporary tableau photographers, not
least because the actors or models need not do very much. As long as they
do little and the photography does a lot, in the form of staging, then a
good result can be achieved. Narrative can still be present if entropic,
while the pitfalls of hammy performance (always a danger given the
restrictions of stillness) can be avoided. Gregory Crewdson makes narrative
cinematic photographs, yet at the heart of all his spectacular productions
is the same basic human gesture: an exhausted person standing or sitting,
slump-shouldered and vacant. The gap between the pacified humans and
the over-active staging can be so extreme as to be humorous, undercutting
the slightly sinister moods.
Sherman used thrift-store clothing, found locations and used just
140 herself in front of the camera. Budgets were negligible in the 1970 s.
124 Gregory Crewdson, fromDreamHouse,
2002, digital c-print, 29 x 44 in.
