Gregory Crewdson, Fountain of Youth, Caravaggio and Baby Jesus

He seems to be the hot topic lately.  It must be the newly released  Gregory Crewdson - Brief Encounters.  This is a documentary about his large production series titled Beneath the Roses.  He will be one of the Insight Artist at Look3 along with Richard Misrach, Josef Koudelka, Susan Meiselas and Carrie Mae Weem along with others.  I've seen him mentioned in various places in the past month or so. Just recently I by passed buying his book "Sanctuary" at McKay Used Bookstore.  It was a bit of a let down compared to his Beneath the Roses series.  I haven't delved into it though.  I don't know the intension or studied the images but at first glance it was unimpressive.  Here is a review or something at Daylight.  It doesn't really say much.   This may be an indication of it success.

The moment captured in the image posted below brought up feelings of nostalgia.  The family is showing the magic of quartz rock to the youngest at Cathedral Caverns in Alabama.  I was reminded of one of the few trips we took as a family to St. Augustine Florida in 1965.  On a tour of the Fountain of Youth we were led into a cellar/planetarium. The cool, damp air and echoing whispers and this scene I saw with this family gather around the baby swelled my heart with happy memories but also my heart ached for the loss of our moment, the passage of our time.

There is a sense of something lost in Crewdson's "Beneath the Roses".  Maybe it is time; maybe it is innocence, maybe the loss of family.  Whatever it is, the series is moving,  personal and nostalgic.

Another memory that came to my mind that help move me to shoot this scene was this Caravoggio painting of Mary with Baby Jesus.  Unknowingly at 5 years old obsessively flipping pages in my mother's Artist Encyclopedias, I was getting imprinted by the Old Masters.