Ralph Gibson

 Ralph Gibson

By: Amanda Schaeffer

By discovering Ralph Gibson's photographs, I soon realized that I wouldn't be a fan of his images that Gibson captures. This image above is the only image that I found that I actually admired and didn't seem creepy to me. However, the rest of the them gave me a sense of horror movie scenes or ghost scenes. I felt an eerie feeling when looking and picking which one I want to talk about. For example, I am seeing a reoccurring symbol in each of Gibson's photographs, and that is a hand of some sort reaching out or grabbing onto something. I don't like how Gibson has these hands in his pictures because it makes me seem uneasy about them. When I look at photography, I want to be relaxed, satisfied, and entertained on what I am seeing, but Gibson's photographs are doing everything but the opposite of that.

However, some of Ralph Gibson's images are not all that creepy and unsettling. Gibson also has images that have more of a contrast to them. They really comprehend each other with a good amount of white and black making the images more defined. Although, the pictures still give off an uneasy feeling, but they are not as worse as the images with hands appearing in the photographs. It's smart that Ralph Gibson didn't capture all creepy or all contrast images since everyone has their own opinion and taste in photography. For example, some people would argue with me that they liked Gibson's eerie hands more than the high contrast ones, while I am the complete opposite. Photography can mean many reasons but I enjoy that Gibson took different kinds of composition and didn't just stick with only one theme.

Due to having trouble on finding an image I enjoyed from Ralph Gibson, I eventually found an image that satisfied my eyes. The image above does contain a hand but not a creepy one like Gibson's other photographs. This one I enjoy since I could relate to this more. I always check up on myself through a mirror to make sure my hair isn't messy, my makeup isn't wearing off, and that I don't have anything in my teeth. I believe I like this image more than the rest of Gibson's work due to satisfying me with relating to myself through this image and that it entertains me with the look of the mirror shape, her lips, and hand. Ralph Gibson isn't my favorite photographer but I do enjoy the photo above and his contrast images.