Ralph Gibson's main experience

Ralph Gibson (1939 65438+ 10/6) is a world-famous photographer. Ralph Gibson's works present a comprehensive exaggeration of technical details, and the images are all strongly black and white. Influenced by American documentary photographers dorothea Langer and robert frank, he formed his own style of exploring a single object or theme image.

Chinese name: Ralph Gibson.

Nationality: USA

Place of birth: Los Angeles, California, USA

Date of birth: 1939 65438+ 10/6.

Occupation: photographer

Graduate school: San Francisco Art Institute, USA

Representative works: darkroom skills of famous photographers

Gender: male

brief introduction

American photographer Ralph Gibson is an alternative photographer. In a photo anthology "Young American Photographer" published by the publishing company he founded (LustrumPress), he and P.Feank used two letters, namely the present text and the postscript.

Ralph Gibson's works are often collected by contemporary photographers, on an equal footing with Cortes Bresson and other predecessors. At the same time, he is often seen in the lineup of novices who specialize in video experiments. Interestingly, in other anthologies compiled from different angles, Ralph Gibson was not selected as a master or a cutting-edge group.

Ralph Gibson, who was trained by people, is also very kind. After becoming famous, he spared no effort to pull young people. After he founded LustrumPress publishing company in 1968, he devoted himself to publishing a batch of new photos that no one wanted to print. The publishing company was a great success, and its two-volume darkroom skills became a global black-and-white photography textbook. The big boss of this publishing company not only has a set of business skills, but also has an impressive management method for image performance.

"management"

"Management" is almost the biggest feature of Ralph Gibson's photographic works. He takes the frame of 135 small camera as the golden ratio of vision, and then frames the object out of this sticky 2: 3 space, whether it is a person or a brick wall, he will compress the complex scene into the simplest lines and then form them in the small grid of the camera. In other words, he doesn't want to record what he sees honestly, but wants to manage his own visual symbols-very local images.

Ralph Gibson revealed his secret recipe in detail in "Darkroom Skills of Famous Photographers": he used a high-sensitivity (ISO400/27) film, which was slightly overexposed when shooting, and then the overexposed time was nearly twice that of normal work. In this way, the photographic ability of the film is compressed into this phenomenon, forming a thick negative. When magnifying, Ralph Gibson deliberately chose Gao Fancha No.4 and No.5 magnifying paper, and extended the development time as much as possible, thus producing the so-called "visual overtone" tone in his photos-thick black and bright white particles.

This anti-traditional darkroom technology also embodies his unique photography concept-to concentrate the scenery in order to simplify the image. From this concept, Gibson's films are all lacking in head and feet. He often cuts off most of a person's face or leaves only a small part of his chin.

Among these binary partial compositions, the most striking is the "hidden" effect. A woman's arm bends into a triangular arc in the picture, covering her face with a bath towel, forming a very warm space. It seems that everything is partly hidden outside the picture. Gibson uses strong sunlight to make the shadow part interesting in hiding space. This kind of performance is just like cubist painting, as if four sides of an object are displayed from a specific perspective at the same time, which is full of a strong hint.

Style of works

Ralph Gibson's black-and-white photos have a great contrast between black and white, but the texture is very strong. The photos are full of rhythm and strange angles and perspectives. These characteristics make the female body he photographed extremely wonderful, making people feel trapped and very secret, which makes people ask for exploration. However, there is no erotic feeling or even ambiguity. What attracts people's attention is only the beautiful lines, the smell in the photos, and the faint indescribable light.

At the same time, Ralph Gibson also photographed many pure lines, such as buildings, objects, clouds, floors and barbed wire. Perhaps in Gibson's lens, women are the most complicated and beautiful rhythm combination worth exploring, so when people look at Ralph Gibson's photos, they also see the magical and hidden beauty that exists in women.

It's incredible to know that Ralph Gibson used to be Dortmlange's assistant and also robert frank's assistant. Robert frank seems to understand that their photos all have a very secret feeling, but obviously they show something completely different. After watching the YOUTUBE video above, I realized that what he learned from DortheaLange was the way of doing things. How to do it is unknown. To be sure, he walked out of his own way and didn't get lost in the charming guide.

all one's life

Ralph Gibson was born in 1939 161October 16 and lives in New York, California.

1960 rpm 1962: San Francisco Art Institute;

1961-1962: Dorthealange's assistant;

1967 1968: robert frank's assistant;

1973 national arts foundation scholarship;

1975 national arts foundation scholarship;

West Berlin, Germany1977 D.A.A. ;

1986 decoration, official del' Ordre dessert Deslette Defrance.

1989 Eastman Kodak photo, "French history";

Honorary doctor, University of Maryland;

1994 French GrandMedaloftheCityofArles；;

1999 silverplumdesigntrustforpublicspace；

1997 doctorofinearts，OhioWesleyanUniversity；

In 2002, he was appointed commander.

evaluate

1) Gibson, an image writer who is not old enough or young enough, is not only because his age is difficult to belong to a generation, but more importantly, because his image style and the weight of his works have not been affirmed by the one-sided momentum. Some people think that he is really qualified to enter the video game palace, but others are always indifferent, thinking that he has just been playing video games, sometimes playing very skillfully, and sometimes playing inexplicably and self-righteous.

2) Anyway, Gibson's fame is really big enough, because he worked as an assistant to famous photographers-D.Lange and Rob Frank, and was brought up by famous artists as early as 23 years old, but before he was 30 years old, he became a smash hit in American photography, which angered Eugene Smith (W.E.Smith, 6544).

Is an alternative American photographer.

Ralph Gibson (1939 65438+ 10/6) is a world-famous photographer. His works present a comprehensive exaggeration of technical details, and the images he evokes are all strong black and white. Influenced by American documentary photographers DorotheaLange and RobertFrank, he developed his own style of exploring single objects or thematic images. Gibson is more interested in the form of local debris than the whole human body. He compared his work to an object that mixed light and time, and thought it was a combination of clear images and real abstraction.

honour

1) 1985 Simon John Guggenheim Memorial Scholarship;

2) 1988 Lycra Medal Award for Excellence

3) In 2007, Lucy Award.

Photo quotations

I don't care how the camera looks at things, I want it to look at things the way I look at the world. (Ralph Gibson)