University of Kentucky UKnowledge University of Kentucky Master's Theses Graduate School 2011 CONSTRUCTING THE REAL: THE NEW PHOTOGRAPHY OF CREWDSON, GURSKY AND WALL Melissa A. Schwartz University of Kentucky,
[email protected] Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Schwartz, Melissa A., "CONSTRUCTING THE REAL: THE NEW PHOTOGRAPHY OF CREWDSON, GURSKY AND WALL" (2011). University of Kentucky Master's Theses. 97. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_theses/97 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Kentucky Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ABSTRACT OF THESIS CONSTRUCTING THE REAL: THE NEW PHOTOGRAPHY OF CREWDSON, GURSKY AND WALL A new class of photographs that relies on digital processes, best exemplified by the works of Gregory Crewdson, Andreas Gursky and Jeff Wall all exhibit a ‘not quite right’ quality that calls into question some of the most closely held truisms of photographic thought. Through novel technological processes combined with the elements of the new photography—new scale, fabulist imagery, and implied narrative—these images challenge the nature of photography as a documentary process and, beyond that, the nature of what we understand to be ‘the real’ that is supposedly documented. A visual analysis of these images through the lens of Roland Barthes’ and Susan Stewart’s scholarship reveals truths about these images and about photography as a medium.