Contorted bodies and bare bottoms: Ralph Gibson's all-seeing eye

The Guardian

05-06-2025

A new book collates six decades of Ralph Gibson's work, from 1960s photographs in San Francisco, Hollywood and New York to more recent nudes, portraits and still lives captured with his beloved Leicas. 'These first few early photographs were made with a Rollei 2.8 that I bought in the navy,' says Gibson. 'I couldn't seem to make it do what I wanted it to do. I wanted to make socially relevant photographs that showed the human condition, but it was only later that I found how to say what I wanted'. Ralph Gibson. Photographs 1960–2024 is published by Taschen
'When I moved to San Francisco, I was 21 and the whole world lay before me. More than anything the world of art was where I wanted to be. The Art Institute was where I met fellow artists and early lovers. We debated all these issues nightly at Vesuvio's Bar, but something was missing. The town was getting small. San Francisco was becoming more and more the kind of place where I might someday retire. It was time to move on with my life, and the only move I could make was back to Los Angeles. It felt somehow closer to what I wanted to become: a photojournalist'
'My father worked at Warner Brothers, and as I grew up in very suburban Southern California the things I most remember are a big backyard and the movies. I would often visit my father on the set after school. In the 1950s he became assistant director to Hitchcock, and the visits turned even more dramatic as I became an extra and bit player. I vividly recall the bright carbon-arc lights used to expose the slow orthochromatic black-and-white film of those days. My sense of contrast must surely have been born during this period as well as the idea of a strong camera presence'
'I would drive all day from the beach to downtown looking for jobs and finding instead images that reflected only my needs. The Strip was my first real assignment, reflecting the kind of photojournalism that in those days seemed so romantic, so important'
'I'd always known that what was really essential to my life would be found in New York. I left LA with three Leicas and $200. I checked into the Chelsea Hotel and didn't check out for three years. New York and I were a perfect match. To be a photographer in this town was like being in heaven. Images were everywhere. I started getting assignments right away and met all the people on the scene at Max's Kansas City. The crowd there all felt quite immortal, and I admit to sharing that feeling'
'I had been a photographer for 10 years, and I thought I understood my work. During my first year in New York my reality began to change. Dramatically. I slept most of the day and worked at night. I was drawn to atonal music, concrete poetry and the writing of Jorge Luis Borges, Alain Robbe-Grillet and Marguerite Duras, who all enormously influenced my inner being'
'I began drifting away from the idea of being a photojournalist. Photography was becoming the vehicle of my introspection. Nothing could have changed any of this. The camera was leading me to other dimensions, to expressions of entirely new feelings. The images took on a decidedly surrealistic overtone. I didn't understand what it all meant, but I continued to follow this tone. Eventually it occurred to me that I had been photographing a dream state. It was time to make a book. The Somnambulist was born in the Chelsea Hotel'
'After three long years of struggle, The Somnambulist was finally published. I financed the printing myself, which led to the founding of Lustrum Press and other publishing ventures. The acceptance of The Somnambulist drastically changed my life. Up to this time I had been on the outside of the recognised circles of photographers whom I admired. They'd all done something important, but until I produced this slim, 48-page volume, I was not included among them. The book was an immediate success, and within three months I was known in photographic circles wherever I went'
'Along with recognition came a bit more money, and for the first time since the navy it became possible to travel abroad. I had wanted for years to be able to photograph in Europe. The cultural depth of these older countries seemed to provide so much subject matter for someone born in Los Angeles. I decided to immediately start another book that would deal with a set of feelings entirely different from The Somnambulist. This group of photographs would address the most ephemeral sensation I could imagine – the feeling of Déjà-vu'
'As early as my art school days, I had wanted to move in closer to the subject. But it was also important to maintain certain attitudes towards scale and volume. I didn't fully come to realise all this until I started working with a 50mm dual-range Summicron lens for the Leica. This enabled me to get much closer to the subject without foreshortening or distortion. With all this in mind, I took particular notice of the image in Days at Sea of the woman in the white shirt with the sleeve rolled up'
'This was new visual territory and I found it extremely stimulating. I determined that one of the ways to subtract data from the image was to move in closer. Also, by selecting subjects that were essentially black and white to begin with, I would remain one step closer to reality'
'I've photographed women for many years and for many reasons. Whatever my intentions might have been at the moment, the female form would reflect the idea I was pursuing. However, I soon realised the impossibility of transcending the subject. A photographer often starts with one idea about the subject and finds the medium reveals its own intentions. The photographer finds himself having become the subject. A dialogue is born between the photographer and the photograph and continues throughout subsequent works. For this reason I believe the figure can never be fully mastered'
'I approach photographing the figure in much the same manner as a musician playing scales. A theme is announced and variations are performed with the goal of attaining ultimate harmony. Photography also resembles music with regard to the ephemeral nature of time and its measurements. One could suggest that certain notes, once struck, are as short or as long as photographic exposures. Beauty in a woman inhabits a force field charged with particles of light. It is almost as if the light is the subject, and the woman the source of light'
'The lines of a woman's form reflect any lighting situation that may occur upon it; a successful photograph of a nude becomes a lighting event in itself'
'Italy is a country and a museum of human nuance. To be a cittadino (citizen) of this land is to share in an ancient spiritual ownership. All gods are present in everything from art to food to love. The cities differ from one another to the degree that other countries differ in their attitudes and language. Politics are so complex that not even Machiavelli could make a clear definition. Love embraces all possibilities with equal blindness. Passion reigns and the moment endures'
'Quadrants remains one of my most simple and enduring series of images. I remember that most of the time I put the bright sun over my shoulder, just like it says on the little slip of paper that comes with the film'
'In Situ (in the natural or original position or place) is the photographic point of departure. Only the location of the image is permanent. The photograph displaces the object within it and separates the word from the object'
'I embarked upon a series entitled MONO, all in black and white, and this led to the colour/black series entitled Political Abstraction, 2015. This gave rise more recently to The Vertical Horizon, 2019–2024'
'In 2012 representatives from Leica came to my studio and proposed a limited-edition, signature monochrome camera. I put the shutter speed on 'A' and prepared to photograph the manhole cover. A bicycle entered the frame just as I released the shutter. As I looked at the image on the display, I said to myself: 'That looks like it could have been taken by me'. Since that morning in the fall of 2012, I have not exposed a single frame of film. I am entirely under the sway of the digital syntax. I am fascinated by this unique language. I will remain committed to the digital Leica'