Ralph Gibson


 Ralph Gibson is a very talented artist that approaches photography in a very simplistic, minimalistic way but also exhibits very technical qualities. I really enjoy the black and white, raw quality of his photos. Like we talked about in class, Gibson arranges his photos in a way that juxtaposes humans versus objects what would otherwise be mundane. Placing a photo of an object next to a human adds a layer of meaning to the object that would not be there without the other, but also adds a simplistic feel to the human that would not be there without the object. 



Gibson also chooses to place photos next to each other that usually compliment each other beautifully with complimentary forms or contrasting tones. For example, the image above shows two of Gibson's photos. Both of these images show sharp lines created by light and shadows which compliment each other, while the first image is very light and has a lot of middle greys while the second photo has a lot of darks and lights and high contrast. 


A lot of Ralph Gibson's photos have a dream-like effect or seem to capture a very specific dreamy moment in time. He seems to represent people as forms and shapes rather than showing the typical high emotion human qualities that people typically capture. I really enjoy these photos and find a lot of inspiration in the idea of drawing parallels between humans and the world around them. Something I think about a lot, especially in nature, is how humans tend to separate themselves from their surroundings when in reality, they are created from the same materials and rely on their environment as much as any other living thing. I do wonder why Gibson often chooses to capture harsh man-made objects instead of more natural forms like leaves or flowers, but nonetheless, these are beautiful and htought-provoking photos. 











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Annie Leibovitz (2)

Image
  Annie Leibovitz is a modern contemporary photographer who uses very stages scenes and organized environments to capture very visually interesting and narrative portraits. These portraits are very thought out and stages, but this creates images that almost feel like paintings. I like the wide angle lens that Annie Leibovitz commonly uses. This allows her to capture more of the surrounding scene to make the environment and integral part of the photo, that the subject in the photo just seems to be a part of the environment rather than sicking out as their own object and the environment adding to them.  The reason I chose these portraits specifically is to show how similar Leibovitz's formula is for capturing a "good" photograph. In all of these, there is a visually interesting environment with women wearing dramatic dresses and good lighting. It seems as if you have these elements, you can copy and paste the composition and a good photograph will result. In all of these ph...
Read more

Arnulf Rainer

Image
  Arnulf Rainer's artwork stood out to me because it is very unorthodox what he does to his self portraits. First, he takes photos of himself that are not the typical "flattering" way of taking a portrait. Then, to add to this, he adds drawings or paint onto of his photos, which almost distorts his identity and the way the viewer views him. These photos evoke a very strong uncomfortable reaction, but it is this ability to invoke such strong emotions that makes these photographs so moving. The distortion of the face is really intriguing to me, because it questions the subjects identity by their looks and may represent how the person feels when other people perceive them.  All of his photographs seem to be initially shot in black and white, maybe toned with sepia, but he then goes overtop of these photographs with colorful paints. He uses a lot of yellow and blue. These colors feel very gloomy and sad. This along with the abstraction of the photos gives a similar feeling to...
Read more