Taking a break from the gallery

Last year, his surreal, elaborately produced photographs hung on the walls in Beverly Hills’ Gagosian Gallery. Now -- uncredited -- he’s on the sides of buses, in glossy magazines and on the cover of industry invites.

New York artist Gregory Crewdson has provided HBO with a tense tableau of the “Six Feet Under” cast for the program’s latest ad campaign. In the lush color photo, the show’s stars sit around a table after a meal that seems to have been interrupted by ... something. They all face different directions; strange light glows through a window; and funeral-parlor-perfect flowers grow to knee-level. Not your average TV show ad.

“One thing I should make perfectly clear,” says the 40-year old photographer. “I’ve never done any commercial work.”

But Crewdson’s a fan, and vice versa for “Six Feet Under” creator Alan Ball, who gave the photographer a (mostly) free hand (and an unspecified fee). Crewdson is now back to his usual mode of turning down commercial work. Not that it hasn’t been interesting.

“I’m used to seeing my work in a contextualized setting, like a museum or gallery,” Crewdson says. “The fact that you can make a single image and have it reach millions of people -- it’s incredible.”

-- Scott Timberg