Gregory Crewdson Retrospective

January 4, 2026 5 minute read see also thread comments

On the same day I visited From Dawn Till Dusk. Der Schatten in der Kunst der Gegenwart exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Bonnꜛ, I also went to the Gregory Crewdson Retrospective that was showing there concurrently.

Gregory Crewdson Retrospektive, exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Oct. 10, 2025 to Feb. 22, 2026.

The exhibition presents a comprehensive retrospective of Gregory Crewdson, covering his work from the 1980s to the present. More than 70 large-format photographs are shown, including key series such as Twilight and Beneath the Roses. Crewdson refers to his images as “single frame movies”, and the description fits well. Each photograph feels like a film scene paused at an unresolved moment. The situations are familiar yet unsettling, often set in small American towns, and marked by a quiet sense of dislocation, crisis, or suspension. Knowing that these images are produced through an elaborate, film-like process involving large crews, detailed set design, and carefully planned lighting adds another layer to how they are perceived.

Before entering the exhibition, I honestly expected that I would not like the work very much. The heavy staging and meticulous choreography sounded almost too controlled to me. I read about his months-long preparation behind each image, which only deepened this impression. Everything seemed calculated, composed, and tightly managed, which is something I don’t usually appreciate in photography.

Gregory Crewdson Retrospektive, exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Oct. 10, 2025 to Feb. 22, 2026.

Inside the exhibition, however, two things completely changed my view. First, I found it surprisingly engaging to approach the photographs from very close range. I turned it into a small game: Starting near the surface of the image, I explored details, gestures, background scenes, and minor figures before stepping back. I was struck by how many small, self-contained stories are embedded within a single photograph. Piece by piece, these fragments accumulated. When I finally stepped back to take in the full image, it was almost hard to believe that all these individual narratives coexisted within one coherent frame. I ended up exploring nearly all photographs in the exhibition this way.

Gregory Crewdson Retrospektive, exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Oct. 10, 2025 to Feb. 22, 2026.

Second, I was genuinely impressed by the quality of the prints. The resolution and technical precision were exceptional. The images were so detailed and finely rendered that this dense layering of small stories only became possible through the material quality of the photographs themselves. The prints invite close inspection and reward it. Without that level of technical excellence, much of what makes Crewdson’s work compelling would simply not be visible.

Gregory Crewdson Retrospektive, exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Oct. 10, 2025 to Feb. 22, 2026.

In the end, the exhibition changed my expectations more than I had anticipated. What initially felt overly staged revealed itself as carefully constructed in service of narrative density. Crewdson’s photographs may be frozen moments, but they are far from static. They invite slow looking, close reading, and repeated shifts between detail and whole. After the shadow-based installations earlier that day, this felt like a different, but related, way of thinking about light, attention, and presence.

Here are some photos from the exhibition. Unfortunately, I did not note down the titles of the individual works, but I hope the images convey a sense of the exhibition’s atmosphere:

Gregory Crewdson Retrospektive, exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Oct. 10, 2025 to Feb. 22, 2026.

If you missed it, Gregory Crewdson’s retrospective at the Kunstmuseum Bonn is on display until February 22, 2026.

References and further reading

Photobooks (excerpt):

Walter Moser (Hrsg.), Gregory Crewdson, 2024, Prestel, ISBN: 9783791377377
Jean-Charles Vergne (Hrsg.), Gregory Crewdson: Eveningside, 2023, Skira, ISBN: 9788857248424