Ralph Gibson

Ralph Gibson has been known to create photos that are often known to be mysterious, giving them a sense of narrative. Gibson doesn’t have a particular subject that he focuses on, rather, he works with a wide range of subjects, whether with landscapes or portraits. His sense of style is mysterious, yet story-driven, and looking through his work indicates the narrative perspective he has on anything he captures. 


 

Mary Ellen Mark in 1967 / Ralph Gibson 


         Gibson’s, Mary Ellen Mark in 1967, gives that mysterious feeling which he’s quite known for. The way in which it contrasts with one half being dark and the other half being dark, making it seem like the person is fading away in the darkness. A lot of his portrait work, for example, provides that covering of of half an individual’s face creating a mood that is difficult to describe. As mentioned, mysterious is the main aspect as the photo above represents Gibson’s work with great lighting and focus, leaving room for questioning and interpretation. 


Looking into more of his work, he also diverts more into a surrealistic approach throughout his work. With surrealistic adds that unusual feeling or confusion in the photo, as the photo above portrays that notion of surrealism as it seems like a nightmare with the woman fading away. Even in his other work, he leaves thought and wonder of what these people are thinking while giving hints of what these people may seem to be. Ralph Gibson overall seems to focus on portraiture in a way that leaves us to wonder how people are through mystery, with the narrative component being an indicator of what individuals are truly thinking 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Conceptualizing Visual Approach Photographer: Bill Armstrong

Image
After Robert Doisneau, The Fall, 2019 When I think about the visual approach in work, I think of a style that sticks with the individual. In photography, one’s visual approach is unique to the individual trying to portray something. Color, angles, shapes, contrast, and other ways can illustrate a subject differently. A notable example of a visual approach comes from the work of Bill Armstrong.   Bill Armstrong’s work is truly fascinating. It heavily relies on color and is out of focus on   the subject and e nvironment . The visual approach that Bill Armstrong works with is blurred focus and color effects. Bill Armstrong primarily works on this since color provides a more lush and semi-abstract while the blurriness gives it a temporal feeling of the moment. This visual approach is very sporadic but does an excellent job of providing a different feeling when looking at his work. What do I think about his work? As seen above, his work on the Falling series is a ...
Read more