# Gregory Crewdson artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/gregory-crewdson/
Profile generated: 2026-05-09T14:25:04.362Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1962-09-26
- Nationality: American
- Movements: Staged photography, Contemporary photography
- Common media: Large-format chromogenic color prints, C-print photographs

## About Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson (born September 26, 1962, Brooklyn, New York) is an American photographer renowned for elaborately staged, large-scale cinematic images that depict eerie, psychologically charged scenes in suburban settings. His photographs are meticulously constructed — involving full production crews, elaborate lighting rigs, and often location sets — blurring the boundary between photography and filmmaking. Crewdson earned a BA from SUNY Purchase (1985) and an MFA from the Yale School of Art (1988), where he later served as director of graduate studies in photography. His work is held in major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Key bodies of work include Hover, Twilight, Beneath the Roses, Cathedral of the Pines, and An Eclipse of Moths, each exploring themes of domestic anxiety, isolation, and the uncanny within ordinary American landscapes.

## Common works and media

Crewdson's auction and gallery output consists predominantly of large-format chromogenic color prints (c-prints), typically measuring 40 x 50 inches or larger, produced in limited editions. Common subjects include nocturnal suburban streetscapes, domestic interiors with solitary figures, and uncanny natural settings — often illuminated by artificial or dramatic lighting. Monographs and exhibition catalogues are also widely available and collected. Works are most commonly encountered as signed, numbered prints from his major photographic series.

## Market and appraisal context

Crewdson's photographs appear regularly in the contemporary photography market at major auction houses. Value is driven primarily by the series or body of work, edition size and number, print dimensions, and provenance history. Works from the Twilight and Beneath the Roses series are especially prominent at auction. Large-format chromogenic prints in small editions tend to achieve the strongest results. Collectors should verify edition details, condition (particularly for chromogenic prints sensitive to light exposure), and documented exhibition or publication history. With 492 auction lots recorded in the Appraisily database, Crewdson maintains a consistent and trackable market presence.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from museum, library authority, and scholarly sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. This page draws on records from the Museum of Modern Art, Library of Congress, Getty ULAN, VIAF, RKD, and Wikidata for biographical facts, supplemented by Appraisily's auction database for market context.

## Sources

- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr98019019
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/7035
- RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/262189
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1347062
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/57485300/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500128025
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Crewdson