599 - Ralph Gibson* (born 1939 in Los Angeles)

Ralph Gibson* (born 1939 in Los Angeles) Hand,1975 vintage gelatin silver print 35,5 x 27,7 cm verso monogrammed and dated AP 1975 in pencil SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE € 800 - 1600 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE € 800 Ralph Gibson (born 1939 in Los Angeles) is one of the defining American photographers of the second half of the 20th century. After training in photography with the US Navy and at the San Francisco Art Institute, he initially worked as an assistant to Dorothea Lange and later to Robert Frank. These experiences in American documentary photography served as a crucial starting point for his own development before he increasingly turned toward a subjective, experimental visual language starting in the late 1960s. With the founding of Lustrum Press and the publication of The Somnambulist (1970), Gibson developed a distinctive aesthetic characterized by deep black-and-white tones, strong contrasts, geometric shapes, fragmented bodies, and surreal-seeming compositions. His photographs traverse the genres of nude photography, portraiture, still life, and abstract composition, combining real-world subjects with a deeply personal, poetic perception. Gibson’s work exists within the broader context of so-called subjective American photography and can be viewed in relation to the approaches of Dorothea Lange, Robert Frank, Duane Michals, Helmut Newton, and William Eggleston. While Lange and Frank represent the documentary origins of American photography, Michals, Newton, and Gibson expanded the medium to include psychological, erotic, and conceptual dimensions. Gibson’s nude photography, in particular, fuses the human figure with light, shadow, planar forms, and graphic abstraction—creating interesting parallels to Helmut Newton, even though the two artists pursue different photographic philosophies. Later figures such as Alec Soth and William Eggleston mark further distinct paths within subjective American photography, where personal perception, atmosphere, and individual visual language take precedence over purely documentary representation. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights and platform fee. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid, the buyer's premium and platform fee. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.