Gregory Crewdson’s Cinecittà Photographs at Gagosian Rome

Gregory Crewdson, who was born in Brooklyn in 1962, recently held his first exhibition outside the U.S. at Gagosian Gallery in Rome, presenting twenty-three black-and-white photos called Sanctuary. The images were captured at Cinecittà, the famous open-air film studio known for iconic films such as Ben-Hur (1959) and La Dolce Vita (1960). Unlike his earlier works, these photos are smaller and less retouched. Crewdson's “tableaux vivants” blend reality with artistic flair, revealing underlying stories. The black-and-white aesthetic brings a nostalgic, haunting vibe, reminiscent of artists like Hubert Robert and filmmakers such as David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock. The series culminates with Untitled (41), which shows a lone receptionist gazing at the viewer, symbolizing Cinecittà's duality of beauty and decay.