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“I Am Not a Misunderstood Artist”: New Exhibition Showcases Ralph Gibson’s Life’s Work
Last Thursday, the American photographer Ralph Gibson and curator Dr. Sabine Schnakenberg presented his new exhibition, ‘Secret of Light,’ to the public at Deichtorhallen Hamburg. The 84-year-old photographer spoke about the most important decisions of his life and the influence of artificial intelligence on photography.
"I’ve had 250 shows around the world but never a show as beautiful, as comprehensive and as different than this. A perfect symbiosis between the artist and the curator."
Ralph Gibson
With about 300 works, it is the most extensive exhibition ever held around photographer Ralph Gibson. And according to the photo icon, there has never been a show before that has been so magnificent and captured him as a photographer in such a way. „I am not a misunderstood artist. I’ve never had such a beautiful show as this. I’ve had 250 shows around the world but never a show as beautiful, as comprehensive and as different than this. This is a perfect symbiosis between the artist and the curator,“ he said at the press conference on Thursday.
In fact, one has the feeling that curator Dr Sabine Schnakenberg has completely immersed herself in the work and life of Ralph Gibson when she talks in the audio guide to the exhibition about how it was not at all difficult for her to find the name “Secret of Light” for the exhibition. For her, Ralph Gibson is inconceivable without conscious design with light. Gibson not only needs light as a material prerequisite for the creation of each of his photographs, light itself becomes an object of investigation and a means of design. Equally important, however, is the play with its counterpart, the shadow. Gibson thus elevates light itself to the subject of his Ĺ“uvre. With this understanding, the name of the exhibition was almost obvious to the curator.
“Secret of Light” was in the planning stage for five years. The exhibition with black and white and coloured, analogue and digital photographs is mainly fed by two sources: On the one hand, there are over 70 works from the private collection of F. C. Gundlach. On the other side is Ralph Gibson himself. Dr Sabine Schnakenberg flew to the USA to visit him in his studio in Sag Harbor (Hamptons) for this. But when she got there, the photographer had just been infected with the corona virus. He provided her with an assistant who searched through cartons and drawers with her. Ralph Gibson himself only brought more boxes in between, the contents of which were also to be taken into account. All in all, this resulted in a show that includes photos from the early work (early 1960s) to the “Nature/Object” series (which was created in 2022 and is not yet completed).
From the series “Deja-Vu”, 1974 © Ralph Gibson
Gibson’s works completely contradict the conventional definition of the medium of photography – the documentation of “reality”: „I am not waiting for the event. I am not talking about news or journalism. I am only trying to say one thing with my photographs: What it feels like for me to be looking at something. It’s not about the subject, it’s about the perception of the subject. Thats all I am trying to do here.“ An approach that has earned him international recognition. He is considered one of the most interesting American photographers of our time. His great international reputation is based on his extraordinary works, which are shown and collected by leading museums in the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art and the J.P. Getty Museum. Ralph Gibson himself is absolutely aware that this is something extraordinary. That is why he has no doubts about any of the major decisions he has made in his life. „My life can be reduced to a very few decisions,“ the photographer explains. „My first big decision was to be a photographer and only use a Leica. Then, the next decision was to do yoga every morning. The next decision was to not do commercial work. After that, I quit drinking and got married to my wife. And that’s the story of my whole life: those decisions put me in this chair. Any different decision, and I might not be here. So, I stay faithful to my Leica just as I stay faithful to my beautiful wife.“
From the series “Days at Sea”, 1974 © Ralph Gibson
"AI will not replace photography, it is something in addition to."
Ralph Gibson
Just as the exhibition looked back on Ralph Gibson’s life so far and the last few decades, it also provided an occasion to talk about the future of photography, which – it seems at the moment – will be influenced by the advent of AI-generated images. The 84-year-old photographer, however, is unimpressed by all the excitement surrounding artificial intelligence in art. „AI will not replace photography, it is something in addition to,“ he is certain. „Photoshop didn’t replace photography; video has not replaced photography. As long as the subject of a photograph is perception, that’s that. I am not at all threatened by AI. I couldn’t care less. As we like to say: I don’t give a fuck. But what we are really talking about is my favorite subject: visual language and the evolution of visual language during my lifetime.“ A topic the American has already talked about in his TED Talk “Finding a Visual Identity in the Digital Age”. According to him, the average person – unless you had your portrait painted and you were the king, the pope or a politician – had no visual identity until 1920. Billions of people lived and died without a visual identity. Today, with smartphones that make everyone a photographer, the world looks different to people. A development, however, that also causes everyone’s photos to look the same today. „So yes, visual language is changing. I would not be having this discussion with you 30 years ago,“ concludes Ralph Gibson. „But we are just beginning to speak visual language.“
Ralph Gibson — Secret of Light
21 April – 20 August 2023
Deichtorhallen Hamburg (Hall for Contemporary Art), Germany
