Ralph Gibson: A Dreamer of Detail

 

Ralph Gibson began his photography journey in the navy where he was sent to photography school and he was in the darkroom for roughly 4 years where he did nothing but printing ("A photographic journey"). He also became the assistant of Dorothy Lang, a well-known photographer, while he was in art school. From her, Gibson learned that the main thing he lacked what was Lang called a "point of departure." He had no objective when going out with his camera, he simply walked the streets hoping to come across something worth photographing. Gibson started to have a purpose when he went out. She also taught him that it was your relationship to the subject, not the technicalities, that made a strong photograph ("A photographic journey").

Gibson is primarily known for his work in "exploring the surreal visual nature of the subconscious" ("Ralph Gibson"). He puts an extreme level of detail into real life subjects that creates a mysterious, surreal tone in his work. Personally, I think his work is interesting in the unique level of detail seen in the faces of his subjects. I find it fascinating that a lot of his photos have the main subject as the lower face area. I can only guess that he chose the mouth as the subject because in conversation you are usually looking at someone's eyes, but in your dreams you can analyze the different parts of the face without ruining the conversation because everything moves at your own pace. You have time to take in the details your mind is interested in which is why it makes his images so captivating. He takes everyday people and allows us to visualize them in unique detail when normally we can't do that when we are awake.

Out of all of his work, I find Gibson's "Tinda," shown above, the most compelling. As I mentioned above, Gibson seems to put emphasis on the facial features other than the eyes. This piece is a prime example of that because the subject was directed to disrupt her upper face with her hand leaving the viewer to get drawn into her lips, hair, and even the shadows and highlight detail in her collar bone. This image captures the mysterious and intimate feeling Gibson is most known for and exceptional at.

"A photographic journey to the point of departure - with Ralph Gibson." YouTube, uploaded by COOPH, 28 Feb. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S9NkO8Jf-A.

"Ralph Gibson." International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum, https://iphf.org/inductees/ralph-gibson/#:~:text=Ralph%20Gibson%20is%20an%20American,mysterious%2C%20symbolic%20and%20often%20erotic.