When encountering Gregory Crewdson’s evocative images for the first time, you’d be forgiven for mistaking them for film stills. Working with a director of photography and rarely dealing directly with the camera, the Massachusetts-based photographer's approach is more like that of a movie director—with high production values and a big crew to match.

Crewdson's often-haunting photographs are always thick with tension. Shooting almost exclusively in his home state, domestic scenes are set-designed with extreme attention to detail; light is used to tell a story about the enigmatic figures featured, treading a thin line between reality and fiction.

In a new film made on the occasion of Crewdson's exhibition, Cathedral of the Pines, at The Photographers' Gallery in London—the first time the entire gallery space has been given over to one artist—Crewsdon talks about the purpose and intent behind his compelling, unsettling oeuvre.