The well-traveled Ralph Gibson works mainly in inspired series, in black and white or color, whose titles are the special poetic sensitivity that characterizes his work: The Somnambulist , Déjà vu , Days at Sea and Chiaroscuro . He began in 1960 as an assistant to Dorothea Lange and went to New York in 1967, where he was soon mentioned in the same breath as Larry Clark and Diane Arbus.

Even though his photographs could speak for themselves, for Gibson, there is a philosophy behind every picture, every series. In the accompanying short texts, he presents his theses. Whether Nudes, portraits, still lifes , or narratives : remaining faithful to his Leica, Gibson moves between genres and creates new categories of vision. He approaches objects and photographs them in an almost meditative way, as only the stillness of the image can achieve.

Created in close collaboration with the artist , this book is the result of more than six decades of image-making. From Gibson's first photographs in San Francisco, Hollywood, and New York in the 1960s to the present day, this the most comprehensive collection of this highly acclaimed photographer .