With Gregory Crewdson, the Kunstmuseum Bonn is presenting one of the most important international representatives of narrative photography. He describes his elaborately detailed shots as “Single Frame Movies”. Inspired by the visual language of cinema, they seem to condense the plot of an entire film into a single moment. However, the events shown remain inexplicable, the outcome unknown. The months-long production process is also comparable to that of major Hollywood films. The photographs are created with the help of over a hundred people for casting, costume and set design, lighting and technical work.

This comprehensive retrospective presents excerpts from all of the artist’s important photo series from the 1980s to the present day. Over 70 works provide an insight into his fascinating visual world, from his early artistic work to his iconic series Twilight and Beneath the Roses to his more recent acclaimed series, which revolve around the decline of American society away from the big metropolises. Crewdson’s uncanny motifs are timeless and at the same time oppressively topical in the face of economic and social crises – not only in the USA.