(1939- )
Ralph Gibson was born in Los Angeles in 1939. Before becoming an assistant to Dorothea Lange in 1961, he studied at the Art Institute of San Francisco. Then he moved to New York and became an assistant for Robert Frank till he founded Lustrum Press in 1969. His early work was black and white in a small format and later works included color but maintained his trademark surrealist, minimalists style. "A surrealist is someone who prefers to live in his subconscious as a more rewarding place to be... For me, surrealism has centered around a deeper perception of the nature of reality" - Ralph Gibson.
Gibson is one of the best know american surrealist photographers. Gibson's reputation started with the publication of The Somnambulist (1969) and has been in 100 more exhibitions since then. He has won two major awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and three National Endowment for the Arts. He also revived the Leica Medal of Excellence in 1988. Gibson currently lives in New York and travels frequently to Europe and Brazil.
Gibson's work often uses small parts with erotic and mysterious undertones which create narrative meaning through interpreting the environment with a expression or action and a surreal juxtaposition.
I was drawn to Gibson's work because in many ways it is what i want my work to represent, a surreal escape to a world that transcends ours. My closest picture to a Gibson was also one of my first. The long exposed picture of myself with my shadow reminds me of something that Gibson would take.
the somnambulist, 1970
“Mary Ellen and Hand, 1972
Untitled (woman looking through glass)
1984
1984
Untitled (shadow, scroll on wall)
1980
The Photography Encyclopedia
Page 166
By Fred W. McDarrah, Gloria S. McDarrah
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