‘Six Feet Under’ shoot: The undertaking
You can imagine photographer Gregory Crewdson’s surprise last year when the avid “Six Feet Under” fan tuned into an episode of the HBO drama – and heard his name mentioned prominently by an art student interacting with Claire (Lauren Ambrose).
“I was sitting alone at home and I nearly fell off the couch – it was a really surreal moment,” says Crewdson. “To be incorporated into a fictitious situation was very strange.”
The “strange” situation grew even more surreal when “SFU” creator Alan Ball, a huge Crewdson fan, approached the photographer along with HBO with the idea of shooting the photo campaign for the show’s third season, which kicks off next Sunday, March 2 (9 p.m.).
“I’ve been a huge fan of [Crewdson’s] ever since I first saw his work years ago,” says Ball. “When we met with HBO to talk about the marketing campaign and what kind of visual we were looking for . . . we thought we’d really like to get a well-known photographer.
“I thought getting Gregory [to do the shoot] was such a longshot, but that he would be the perfect photographer for this show,” Ball says. “His works seems to be about the sort of secret, surreal life that exists just beneath the surface of mundane surroundings – and that’s very much what our show is about.”
Much to Ball’s delight, Crewdson – who never does promotional photography – agreed to shoot the photo.
“Basically, they came to me purely because of my work, and consequently, from that moment on, I was very much treated as an artist,” Crewdson says. “We had certain discussions and there were certain parameters that had to be set, and within those parameters we created the photograph.”
Crewdson says he shot the photograph, shown above, in Los Angeles.
“I had some ideas and I knew what I wanted,” he says. “My immediate response was that I’ve used flowers in many of my own pictures, and my first thought was that it would be interesting to incorporate that as the central motif.
“Because, in the series and in my own work, there’s a split between ordinary life and mystery – and flowers are obviously emblematic of the whole funereal aspect of the show.
“I wanted the picture to reside on this moment that merges reality with something fantastical,” he says. “We shot the photo on the [‘Six Feet Under’] set, in the kitchen – which is one of my favorite spots because of the windows.”
Last year, many fans of “The Sopranos” tried to interpret plot developments from that show’s promotional photo campaign (why is Paulie the only one looking into the mirror?)
So should we be doing the same with Crewdson’s “Six Feet Under” photo?
“Put it this way,” he says, diplomatically, “I’ve considered all aspects of the show and all the personalities and personality tics [of the characters].
“Every single thing was considered – from what each character is wearing, eating, where they’re sitting . . . it’s all in service to the story.
“I wanted to reflect all the psychological tension between the characters in terms of detail.
“And every picture tells a story.”