Ralph Gibson

I really appreciate the link, I've never looked at his work before now.

Todd
 
Todd.Hanz said:
I really appreciate the link, I've never looked at his work before now.

Todd
Click to expand...

It's nice to see him still shooting away. He's been at it for over 30 years. [I actually met Mr. Gibson at a book signing for Somnambulist (my copy is signed) some 30 years ago]. Nice guy. He's got a very consisitent personal vision. I think he really works the portrait/vertical format well, too. I'm also happy to have the link. As I wrote above, it's great that I can peruse all (most?) his work online.


:)
 
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Oh, my, I read a few of the interviews. I can understand people's toxic reaction to "things Leica", if he's to be used as a barometer. His shots are well-exposed. Dare I say he's the Adams of anything nonlandscape?

Beyond that, like a one-night-stand, it's nice, but... ?
 
I admire his work too .. not only because he turns the simplest objects into great pictures ... but foremost because the consistency in his work (formost his B&W work) .. there is style of his own .. you can see it's a Gibson on first sight. ( it's the same with Egleston .. wether you like his work or not)
He also proves a Leica/ RF picture need not be "sloppy" in terms of composition and camerashake.
 
I think is works kinda sucks if you want my opinion.
It's well exposed and technically good but otherwise boooring according to me.
 
am i the only one with a soft spot for shamelessly middle aged, upper middle-class white people with a good eye?
 
I like his work and have done for a long time. It's not everyone's cup of tea granted, but he's developed his own vision over the years and i've seen some of his prints
made from his Focomat 1c and they were exceptional. There was a thread like this a while back and it seems he wasn't too popular. Neither was Ansel Adams.
Each to his own.
 
I have just checked the photos - thanks for the links - and they are not bad at all. I am impressed by the narrative consistency that informs all these pictures. Having read the interview I can understand some of the negative comments - as it happens so often, verbal articulacy and artistic vision are divorced - but the mention of the two M6's and the passion for film was a very welcome surprise.

There's no doubt in my mind that a good photographer has also got to be a good marketeer. It's business acumen that lifts your work from the heap. For many people know how to shoot. Very few know how to sell. Ay, there's the rub.
 
btw check out latest leica lenses brosure, he has done some amazing photos in solms, btw some objects I very close, I guess he was using 90mm or maybe 75mm because I tryed to fit objects in a same scale but I could not focus with 50mm, anyone has ideas about it?
 
Gibson used 50 DR summicron for a lot of the older work .... do not know about the brochure. I am convinced cropping is a vital party of his workflow also.... nothing wrong with that afaiac .....
 
he said he would not admit that his croping, even though if you check brochure on the cover it is croped image of the one inside :)
 
It is almost impossible to get compositions as clean as his with a RF without (at least minor) cropping.... for me there is nothing to feel guilty about.
It was vital part of the work of 2 other photographers i realy admire: Andre Kertesz & W. Eugene Smith ...... they admitted and stood for it.
 
Here I tryed to simulate what he did to leica brochure, well it is not that great because it is done in my toilet, he did it in solms :D

simulation.jpg
 
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