Ralph Gibson: Political Abstraction (LUSTRUM, 2015)

Political Abstraction is the name of a series of color and black-and-white photographic diptychs by acclaimed fine art photographer Ralph Gibson. In these works, the viewer experiences several simultaneous visual motions dealing with the migration of color and shape across seemingly simple imagery. The series is born out of a response to the search for visual identity in a digital age. Gibson has devoted his pursuit to the idea that the viewer of the work is the actual subject of the piece itself. Thus, the photographs are relative but not restricted to the intention of the subject or the photographer. These works have been made during travels in eight countries, yet they remain remarkably unified in their perception. In this way, Gibson’s visual signature remains intact throughout the entire series.

[@haeskenhoff]

The simplicity and strategic composition is something to be admired from Gibson. Not only a great photographer but also a very intelligent Man.

[@HatefYaminiOnline]

Beautiful collection. Thank you for sharing.

[@doubleletter]

Thanks for sharing. It would have helped if you could just open the book straight up instead of showing us the black cover several times underneath the dust cover. I guess we are impatient in this day and age. But thanks.

[@andras_ikladi]

Thanks for the comment!
I understand what you're saying and sort of agree...but that's only one way to look at it. As someone who is designing books I prefer to see the cloth, typography, colors...etc on the hard cover and even the folding of the jacket can be important (Gibson seems to like the French fold for example). I consider this as a sort of archive and a collection of ideas/reference too.
But to be honest, if I look at the statistics, the average viewer doesn't have the patience to watch videos like this anyways, usually they get to the 30% mark, 40+% is already outstanding, only a few have more than that. And interestingly it doesn't matter if the book has 400 pages and takes 20 minutes to flip through or it has 40 and takes 3 minutes, it's always the fist third that's of interest. But I think in general most YT videos are not watched front to back.

[@doubleletter]

@@andras_ikladi thank you for the additional context and reply. Cheers.