A24 Partners With Legendary Photographer Gregory Crewdson on Image for Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Gregory Crewdson has been celebrated for his elaborately planned and staged, almost cinematic deconstructions of American life. However, the legendary photographer rarely turns his camera on Hollywood.

That changed after he got an invitation from Ari Aster and A24 to compose a custom image from the set of “Eddington,” a darkly comedic look at a sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) navigating small town politics during the height of COVID that premieres this month. It was an offer Crewdson couldn’t refuse.

“I’m a big fan of Ari’s and I love his films,” he says. “I feel very connected to them in terms of their aesthetic and their sensibility. My pictures are very concerned with the psychological underpinnings of everyday life, so there’s a lot of cross connection.”

Aster and A24 gave Crewdson free rein to compose an image that would be artistically aligned with the story that “Eddington” tells. The indie studio produced the picture with Crewdson, his own director of photography and lighting team, alongside “Eddington’s” production and art department. And they convinced Joaquin Phoenix to appear in the center of the frame as his character, Joe Cross. Crewdson closed down the entire town of Truth or Consequences, the evocatively named New Mexico town where “Eddington” was shot, and he changed out all the street lights and used fog machines. All of the shooting had to happen at twilight, the time of day when Crewdson works.  

“It’s called ‘magic hour’ and it’s just magical, literally,” Crewdson says. “It’s a moment of transition between light and dark.”

Crewdson’s images, whether they are set in abandoned streets or cramped basements, often capture, in his words, “a moment between moments.” That’s certainly the case in the picture he took of Phoenix, standing alone in the center of town, flanked by a gunshop and a boarded up house, the taillights of a truck in the distance.

“I liked the idea of a desolate landscape, almost like the opening up a Western or something, with a kind of grandeur,” Crewdson says. “And I wanted there to be this mood or atmosphere of something foreboding.”

Aster cites Crewdson as an early influence on his films, praising the “the way [his photos] rendered the mundane so strange and eerie.” He also admired their “extreme formalism, the painterly quality of the compositions and the vibrancy and control of color.”

When it came to the “Eddington” photo, Crewdson staged the shot with a stand-in and later had to contend with Phoenix’s intense aversion to being the subject of Crewdson’s art.

“The first thing he said to me is, ‘I don’t like to be photographed,’” Crewdson says. Though he thinks Phoenix came around. “He got into it,” he says. “I think we both got what we needed from the experience.”

The startling image of that they captured is premiering on Variety for the first time. It is being offered as a limited edition fine art print by A24 for $250. Each print will be signed by Crewdson.

Aster is thrilled with the results. “It’s gorgeous and it captures the town so beautifully,” he says. “He also captured something essential about Joe, and his loneliness.”

It’s the first time that Crewdson has ever made an original work especially for a motion picture, though he did do a series of promotional photographs for the HBO show “Six Feet Under” in 2003. Would he show up to another film set?

“It feels like a one off, but there’s always exceptions to the rules,” he says.