Postmodernism was essentially a departure from modernism. While modernism showcased textured, unmanipulated images, postmodernism represented a departure from these photographic methods. Unlike modernism, postmodernism embraced the idea that if you looked hard enough, the truth would eventually collapse. Not only that, but the truth was seen as an illusion because there is doubt. Originality no longer exists. Authority was no longer believed because those in authority were believed to be more concerned with remaining in power. Postmodernism is like a rebellious teenager, challenging all past ideas about what characteristics photography had to have to be considered “art”. This style was also about questioning reality, decoding hidden messages, doing things differently, appropriating, taking something old and making it new, and creating a false reality. Postmodernism has many similarities with pop art, installation art, and Dadaism. There were many pieces in the Emily Fisher Landau exhibition that had traits of postmodernism, but one piece in particular stood out to me. “Untitled” (Beckoning Bus Driver) by Gregory Crewdson immediately caught my attention. The scene appears to have been shot shortly after sunset. There is a small house in the foreground and a red barn in the background. The house has the lights on inside, the front door open and a large window. Through a large front window the curtains are drawn showing a family inside. A man sits in a large reclining chair; next to him, on a striped sofa, sits a young girl. Both are facing away from the window, a slight glow on their faces indicating a TV in the room, out of sight. Outside the house there is a concrete path that leads to a deserted street. A little girl is standing...... in the center of the paper...... the bus driver even at night? There are no other children on the bus, so where do you plan to take her? Is he also a bus driver? When will the family notice that she went out alone? Or will they stay glued to the TV until she's gone? The scene raises many questions and, unfortunately, is a very familiar scene. Crewdson led us into his fantasy world, enthralled by the beautiful lighting and fantastical scenes. His photographs push viewers to constantly think, in search of the truth. It challenges the conventional way of operating by using every imaginable type of production technique in a single “frozen” moment while still trying to capture the “perfect” image. It is these cinematic details that make his images even more persuasive. This photograph has never been captured in real life, but it has qualities that bring the human eye closer to its own reality.