The frequently made comparinons of Crewson's work to the movis—Steven Spieler, Wes Anerson, David Lynch, te—are suggestive and desive fam ee ook” athe pictues, wich resemble no visual atic made by man so much a5 1950 Tecicolr move stills pone a the lobby ofthe Palace Theater in Lake Placid, New Yk, othe Stain Concord, New Harp shite, othe Capita in Montpelier, Vermont. The slltwn theaters of my bho and ado- lescence. They like stop-action sho, inviting one, alsing one, especialy peshaps Fone is ‘madolecent by, o concentrate on the details ‘The comparisons o movies derive also fom the way in which the content ofthe piceues tue assembled and staged—the special way in which the photographs are made. They do not omeel their staging (the aging, its antifiiaiy,ispreiallyRaunted), bur tke movies they tue obviously expensive wo produce and requze an enormous amount of planning and huge «ews and vast amount of equipment and machinery. And similar, their proiucton depends ‘upon trust and collaboration among many people with many diferent skills and types of exper- se They are asemble like soundstage, mos of them builtin and around the decaying ill town of Noch Adams, and Pcseld, Massachusets, wih the characters (and they are charae- ‘ers, rather than subzcs) played by loa citizens and sometimes by profesional cr. single shoot can force ato to reroute avtomobile aie fr entire das, So is natural to wane 0 ompatedhem tthe movies ‘Yetiesemsro me thatnasmuch ashe viewers equived wo doa exci pa of the eretve work hin o heel, Crewdon's phoengraphs engage one mind more like xno fton than movies: When we watch a movi, feral we are prohibited en sing our imagination. 10 not prof the deal lesall dane fous Moviegingis essentially passive experience. Whatvon he sereen enters ou eyes and ear an fils our minds ently leaving us with no oom or choice but ‘w ceck ou imaginations athe door Movies, conta othe gloss postin the lobby‘announce and advance them, ly rh memary and hope, We can ing our peso pts, ‘ue memories and crsues, ont fantasies nd dena, our dream lives and tr ghar to the ‘movies an plug ther inthe native, sing the mates fou eet ane ives will out and amplify the fisemoving swndtracke imagery onthe xen and vet pon meaning the ‘vay we do when silent, how incomplete conta fur rate of perception, we read a novel.Or the way we do when we peer int the photographs made by Gregory Cowon. For as much as Crewdson's sere inner lie is surely revealed by his photographs, on ewig them one's own seret inne fe is neces eveled, toa least once. And ‘revelation produces change, Movies do muny things tan forus but they almost never change us Nocat dhe moment of viewing, anyhow: Later, maybe, they ean, fcr dhey've been stored fora while in our memory banks and have been compounded there and canbe drawn upon as if they were put of or remembered experience of the wld 38 f we, 00, 1 bung ou with Hrphrey Bogare in Casablane in 1942 o ad watched Alana burn, Simpl we don’t bring ‘hac pucof ourselves tothe experience of going the mosis. Movies povide no half ompleted skerative reality ready co hae its blanks filled inno ftional wold where we ea reside long, ‘enought minh ewith ue pcexitng nemo, dreams and flection Further otha, singe isolated photograph by isl, even one of Crowson cannot change the viewer or the phowgraphe hinsel any more than asingle chapter Tam a novel ean change the eader or the novelist himself. No yo have te or make a srk of pictures: you have w read or write she entice novel. You have to expose youself tan altemative wold & Fiona worl, iy will and ener and wo only that, you have eo ive there fora lng time, usa days and weeks and even lange, yes a il 9, an in with your own magi ings lance, aqui lok see, wil not doit And ehin vaste forthe pi a fo the viewer, steve Fr the novels fo his he end