Left: Courtesy Leica | Right: Ralph Gibson Courtesy Luiz Marinho
Ralph Gibson (American, born 1939) is an art photographer best known for his luminous photographic books, having produced over forty monographs thus far. While in the U.S. Navy, and later at the San Francisco Art Institute, Gibson studied photography, and later became an apprentice to iconic American image-makers Dorothea Lange and Robert Frank. He is a highly acclaimed, award-winning photographer who worked with Magnum for many years. Known for his singular commitment to the Leica camera, Gibson has worked with this brand for almost fifty years.
Gibson’s Chromogenic prints produce evocative saturated colors in works from the series, Gotham Chronicles, 1984-2005. Many exclude the human figure, for the most part. If shown, people are seen on the periphery, a fragmentary glimpse like a windblown newspaper caught out of the corner of one’s eye. Gibson is enamored with the urban environment of New York City: it’s anonymity, heroic geometry of architecture, abstraction, and ethereal light effects. Even the familiar square shapes of a garage door seduce the viewer with their geometric play of light and shadow.
“I embrace the abstract in photography and exist on a few bits of order extracted from the chaos of reality.”
—Ralph Gibson
Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles), 1990 [1] | Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles). 1990 [2] | Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles), 1988 | Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles), 1986 | Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles), 1991 [1] | Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles), 1984 | Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles, | Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles, 1991) [2]
Ralph Gibson
Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles), c. 1990
Chromogenic print
2019.1.19
Ralph Gibson
Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles). c. 1990
Chromogenic print
2019.5.1
Ralph Gibson
Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles), c. 1988
Chromogenic print
2019.5.2
Ralph Gibson
Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles), c. 1986
Chromogenic print
2019.5.6
Ralph Gibson
Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles), c. 1991
Chromogenic print
2019.1.18
Ralph Gibson
Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles), c. 1984
Chromogenic print
2019.5.19
Ralph Gibson
Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles), c. 1992
Chromogenic print
2019.5.7
Ralph Gibson
Untitled (from Gotham Chronicles), c. 1991
Chromogenic print
2019.5.3
Images by Jacqui Hopely Monkell