Vu / Imprévu, Ralph Gibson

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Available on 23rd June 2025

"Vu, Imprévu", photography, texts, music scores & music by Ralph Gibson.
As a manifesto on music with photography.
Based on an original idea by Thierry Bigaignon: 

"In 2017, after spending several hours with Ralph Gibson in his New York studio, I realized that music was just as important to him as photography, and had been for over 70 years!
I naturally proposed a project which would combine his two life-long passions.
The concept was simple: select about fifteen iconic and deeply personal images to Ralph, and compose an original music for each one.
Ralph Gibson embraced the challenge, and less than two years later, the Vu, Imprévu series was born.
This project offers art enthusiasts and collectors a unique opportunity to explore another facet of the American master’s genius.
Celebrated for his groundbreaking visual vocabulary in the 1970s with his Black Trilogy — The Somnambulist (1970), Déjà-Vu (1973), and Days at Sea (1974) — Ralph Gibson is also a talented guitarist. He discovered the guitar at age 13 and picked up a camera four years later. Since then, he has remained an eternal apprentice, believing there is always more to learn from both instruments.
"Vu, Imprévu" presents a rare opportunity to revisit some of Ralph Gibson’s most iconic photographs from a completely new perspective.
The selected photographs, taken between 1968 and 1990, are each paired with a piece of music, specially composed, performed, and recorded by the artist in his New York studio.
For Ralph Gibson, “music is a universal language, and every work of art strives to emulate it. Close your eyes, and a photograph becomes no more than an abstract memory.
Music, on the other hand, cannot be ignored. Ears have no eyelids.”
Thierry Bigaignon

Iikki books, 2025
Limited edition of 1000 copies, hand-numbered
Hard cover
27.5 × 22 cm
108 pages
ISBN: 978-2-9586157-7-2