GIBSON • PLOSSU
MASTERS AT THEIR BEST
EXHIBITION: 6 JUNE - 13 JULY 2024
PREVIEW: 6 & 7 JUNE 2024 (11AM-7PM)
OPENING : SATURDAY 8 JUNE 2024 (3-7PM)
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As an unprecedented unique opportunity, the "Gibson / Plossu" exhibition brings together for the very first time the work of two of the greatest photographers of their generation. For this one-of-a-kind exhibit, the two artists have each made a very personal selection of prints from their own photographic archive, offering a unique perspective on two careers that have marked the history of contemporary photography.
If French photographer Bernard Plossu has been in love with America since the beginning of his career in 1965, making numerous series in Mexico, the American West and the Midwest, Ralph Gibson is undoubtedly the most Francophile American photographer, named by the French Government Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2002 and Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2018.
Bernard Plossu's work is deeply inspired by travel. Born in Vietnam in 1945, he took his first photographs in the Sahara with his father at the age of 13. His journeys have led him across America, Africa, Asia, and the Mediterranean, capturing what he terms "in-between landscapes" with inherent intensity. His intimate style is an ode to everyday life and the poetry of the mundane, as reflected in many of his publications. For this exceptional exhibition, he has selected thirteen prints from his series "The Still Hour," a visual dialogue with the serene, floating landscapes of the Mediterranean spanning more than thirty years.
Ralph Gibson, known for his mysterious and symbolic imagery, has built a career-long body of work exploring the surreal visual nature of the subconscious. Influenced first by the powerful lights of movie sets where his father worked as Alfred Hitchcock's assistant director, and later by the Nouveau Roman, atonal music, and concrete poetry, Gibson's dreamlike style is world-renowned. For his fourth exhibition at Bigaignon, Gibson has chosen thirteen favorite prints from his archive, offering a highly personal selection that will delight fans of the American master.
Both photographers have revolutionized contemporary photography through daring artistic choices and share a love of books, which have played a crucial role in their creative processes. Bernard Plossu (aka ‘the 300 books man’) integrated books into his creative process very early on, and almost every one of his series has been published. For Ralph Gibson, while his first opus "The Somnambulist" in 1970 was one of the most accomplished forms of the artist's book, a work of art in its own right that enabled him to assert his visual signature, he carried on refining his craft one series at a time and has been publishing groundbreaking books for more than fifty years.
The images in the "Gibson / Plossu" exhibition resonate like old memories frozen in time, visual fragments revealing increasing layers of poetry. Despite their distinct photographic styles, their works echo each other in their approach to line and matter, verging on abstraction without succumbing to it, and demonstrating an absolute mastery of light and contrast.
For this exceptional event, both artists will be present at the opening at Bigaignon on Saturday, June 8, 2024, from 3 pm to 7 pm.
This exhibition is produced with the kind permission of Camera Obscura gallery.
