Ralph Gibson's Contemporary Photography

                                                         

    Born in Los Angeles, California on January 16, 1939 Ralph Gibson happens to be a contemporary American photographer who surrounds his work around black/white photography and formal abstraction. This meaning that his work is very much precise, impersonal, hard edged, and non figurative. Gibson studied photography while being a participant of the US Navy. Gibson had then attended the San Francisco Art institute and worked as an assistant for Dorothea Lange and Robert Frank, which gave him much experience early in his career. Since these opportunities came about, the more he learned, the more he became successful. He has completed over 40 books, some self published, under his company called Lustrum Press. His work is all over the world including New York, NY where he lives and works. His photos are held at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. 

    In the photo above, Gibson's use of negative space implies some type of mystery. To me, its as if he surrounded this photo with the thought of centering, depth of field, shadows and it could look like he took this around the time the sun was going down. The centering of this photo would be the part of her face that's directly in the sunlight, her eye specifically. Gibson wants to show some type of message, but at the same time what could that message be. Depth of field is being used because as said before, the lit up portion of her face is being focused and everything surrounding her is blurred. With the shadow portion, the side of her face that is pitch black makes me wonder what his goal was after developing this image. It makes it seem as if she is shy and after a hard life of experiences, she is finally coming out into the open, yet she is still hesitant.