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Ralph Gibson
סופר
American photographer. Born in Los Angeles, the son of a Warner Brothers employee, he learned photography as a teenage naval recruit; then studied briefly at the San Francisco Art Institute and worked as an assistant to Dorothea Lange. He also joined the Beat scene. A period back in Los Angeles produced The Strip (1967), but in 1966 he moved to New York, writing later, ‘New York and I were a perfect match just waiting for one another, although I knew it first.’ He did little commercial work, but lived a day‐for‐night existence honing a style. The Somnambulist (1970; published by Gibson's Lustrum Press, which subsequently produced other books by himself, Robert Frank, Larry Clark, and others) suggests dreamlike unreality by means of surreal cropping and juxtaposition, shadows, reflections, and grain. It brought him fame, strengthened his commitment to the photographic book, and gave him the means to travel. Erotic images, combining a sense of intimacy with daredevil touches of incongruity and bad taste, ballasted Days at Sea (1974) and have remained central to his work. Now a leading New York photographer, Gibson continues to be fascinated with the details and textures of bodies and things, often working in close‐up, both in colour and monochrome. He has won numerous awards and photographed in many countries including France, Italy, Japan, and Egypt,
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