“There are strong and fascinating polarities at play in these images. Many of them induce a feeling of loneliness or alienation, which somehow merges with an underlying sense of hope and possibility. These artists are all American: they all engage what is sometimes called the “American vernacular” to reveal both its beauty and its darkness. They present the American vernacular as a fragmented landscape of shadows and reflections: a hall of mirrors.

My own work comes back again and again to the American Dream and its darker inverse. Without the work of such artists, our understanding of the complexities of American life, and its angels and demons, would be far less interesting. And my own vision would, without question, have taken another shape entirely.”

-Gregory Crewdson, Aperture 2008