Finding a Visual Identity in the Digital Age | Ralph Gibson | TEDxFulbrightSantaMonica

Gibson's photographs are included in over 170 museum collections around the world, and have appeared in hundreds of one man exhibitions. According to ArtDaily: "For Gibson, photography isn't about capturing a special event or a certain moment but about making the most insignificant subject into a work of art".

Ralph Gibson was born in Hollywood, California in 1939. His father was assistant director to A.Hitchcock and as a young boy he would visit the set during filming. He also worked extra and acted in bit parts. He was impressed by the power of the camera lens and the intensity of the lights. He studied photography while in the US Navy and then at the San Francisco Art Institute. He began his professional career as an assistant to Dorothea Lange and went on to work with Robert Frank on two films. Gibson has maintained a lifelong fascination with books and book-making. Since the appearance in 1970 of THE SOMNAMBULIST, his work has been steadily impelled towards the printed page.

[flinchey]

This should be longer, Ralph is one of my most favorite photographers Days At Sea changed everything for me, great insight happy he’s still with us

[crabbyreef]

6 years later I discover this presentation; however, be that as it may, it is timeless. Mr. Gibson's message on creativity could and should be passed on through the generations.

[qnetx]

Of all the decades I have spent learning and photographing, this talk has been one of the most insightful. Thank you Ralph!

[nickfanzo]

As much as I love this artist and his works, he uses the same verbiage for every interview and every book about his process or technique.

He has basically created a very wordy way, in a very “Leica” way, of saying basic things. He uses the same very few stories and circumstances and recycles them over and over as a way to enlighten the art crowd, not other artists, but the rich folk who drink champagne while in a gallery.

Take for example his point of departure story. He tells the same story all the time and then shrouds it in mystery by making the actual “point of departure” elusive to the audience. It can mean going to the store, or basing your works on a dream sequence. This is a Very vague and broad definition. This can confuse a reader or listener, this is elusive on purpose and makes him seem more mysterious. Joel Meyerowitz stood on a street corner airing around and his photographs are amazing. Garry Winogrand as well. Take it with a grain of salt.

I’ll sum things up, frankly and abruptly; make the pictureS YOU WANT to make.

Don’t let another artist, who is rich and wealthy, make a script for your processes. Make your own script.

Enjoy making art and be well.

[ChristopherJones-cjphoto]

When I was 15 and bought my first camera in 1967, it was because I had just seen a book of Cartier- Bresson photos. But Gibson’s books, not too much later, made me begin to really think about what I was trying to say.

[MissAndreaChavez]

Beautiful talk, beautiful person, amazing photographer, thank you!!!

[davidcantor]

It’s really about him, arm lifted into a talk about visual identity.

[markquiram]

Oh to sit for even a single afternoon and discuss the "why" of photography with Ralph Gibson. I can think of nothing more erudite and thrilling.

[WZ]

English is not my first language. So, I played this video twice, and I still couldn't comprehend what Mr. Gibson meant by finding my visual identity in the digital age.
Why did the visual identity change from the analog age to the digital age? It's like cooking on two different stoves, my cooking will not differ.

[John]

I'm amazed by the comprehensive nature of this content. A book with similar substance greatly expanded my knowledge. "A Life Unplugged: Reclaiming Reality in a Digital Age" by Theodore Blaze

[kristinahahn]

Thank you, Ralph, for sharing your visual #fightsworthfighting!

[lightsongstudio]

If you want to know how great Ralph Gibson is, just ask him.

[Lady_Una]

Indeed an Intelligent man - meeting Michael Goldberg has changed my life and the way of my thinking. They way he pronounce my home village - Iikokola is indeed funny :)

[MikeKleinsteuber]

Great photographer but he should back off his intellectual claptrap. And should take a leaf out of the Saul Leiter book of philosophy....

[Tom_YouTube_stole_my_handle]

I wouldn't like to guess how much that left-handed Leica would run to.