[2][3][non-primary source needed] Crawford started his classical training in photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York in 1972, where he had close contact with Betty Hahn, Nathan Lyons, Michael Bishop, and Les Krims, among others.
Besides, artists from a variety of disciplines were active during these years in Claremont as teachers and visiting lectures, like Michael Asher, Mowry Baden, Michael Brewster, Judy Fiskin, Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Leland Rice, Paul Soldner, Harrison McIntosh, John Mason, and Ed Moses.
[5] Since the 1970s Grey Crawford produced an extensive body of work, embodying aspects from different disciplines and media in his photographic series.
[citation needed] His oeuvre has rarely been exhibited in the last forty years and is just beginning to be the subject of art historical research.
It was not until 2017 that his Umbra series (1975-78), in which he worked a masking technique in the darkroom to incorporate basic geometric shapes in his Southern California landscapes, was first rediscovered and presented to the public, making it a subject of critical attention.