Gregory Crewdson, Blue Velvet

Crewdsons photographs look like stills from a film. He employs a whole crew of people to create sets and work behind the scenes, much like a movie set would.

Crewdson has admitted he is heavily influenced by David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. He knew the ideas of David Lynch and went from his ideas to create new ideas.

'Lynch is Crewdson's most obvious source of inspiration. When he was a graduate art student in the mid-1980s, the photographer says he was struck by Lynch's masterpiece, Blue Velvet. "I had the distinct feeling it would change me," he says. Lynch's vision of a dystopian world beneath the suburban idyll of Lumberton - in particular, the unforgettable 15-minute scene in which Kyle MacLachlan hides in a cupboard while Dennis Hopper acts out his S&M fantasies with Isabella Rossellini - left a lasting impression: "I love everything about it - the set, the attention to colour, light and mood."'

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1887082,00.html

The scenes in Blue Velvet are set in the suburbs of America. There is a lot of mystery and disturbing behaviour hiding underneath the town. This is something Crewdson suggests in his work, the darks and lights that he uses and the colours he chooses for his photographs.

There are a lot of browns and plain colours in Blue velvet as there is in Crewdsons work, there is rarely any pattern on walls, he opts instead for a plain wall, or if there is pattern it is old and faded. His colours are not bright and modern.

Comparing the street scene in Blue Velvet (top image) and a photograph from Crewdsons Beneath the Roses (bottom image)you can see how Crewdson may have taken elements of Lynch’s work to create his own image.