Last Friday I was given a special preview of a Ralph Gibson “Vu, Imprévu” show at Galerie Thierry Bigaignon.
The owner of the gallery Thierry Bigaignon provided a private tour of the new show for some of my tour clients the day before the opening.
Bigaignon shared about the very special collaboration between himself and Ralph Gibson. Gibson has not only had an astonishing 60-year career as a photographer, he also is an equally talented musician, playing the guitar since he was 10 years old. However, Gibson is very private about his music and doesn’t play for the public. While Bigaignon was working with Gibson in the U.S., Gibson was always playing the guitar.Bigaignon thought that Gibson should share his musical talent along with the photos and boldly asked him to compose a piece of music for each of the 15 photos in the show. Gibson bought the idea and took many months to compose the pieces.
The photos dated between 1968 and 1990, were carefully selected between Bigaignon and Gibson, choosing the most personal and iconic images.
The way the music is played with the photos is brilliant. Below every image is a barcode and you tap your I-Phone or Android on the barcode, and a Vimeo link comes up with the music. The gallery smartly provides headphones so there’s no interference.
There is only an edition of three silver gelatin prints for each photo and attached to the back of each photo is the sheet music. Once the photo is purchased, the collector gets a special device to hear the music and it cannot be listened to by the public or anywhere else.
Thierry Bigaignon
The photos are beautifully mounted in white frames, and besides the matting, there’s a large white border on the print, giving the feeling the images are floating.
One haunting image of a fire destroying a beauty parlor had a moving story, which Bigaignon told us. Gibson’s parents divorced when he was young and to support the family, his mother worked in a beauty parlor. When Gibson was an adult, his mother died in a fire in her beauty parlor and he was so stunned, he couldn’t bring himself to cry for his loss. A number of years later he saw a beauty parlor on fire and he immediately snapped a photo. The moment after he took the photo, he burst into tears, releasing his longtime pent-up grief.
The opening was Saturday, and Ralph Gibson played his guitar in the gallery for a few hours.
Vu, Imprévu-Ralph Gibson
Until May 12
Galerie Thierry Bigaignon
9 rue Charlot, 75003
Metro: Filles Calvaires
Open Tuesday to Saturday 12PM-7PM
www.thierrybigaignon.com
I am very excited to announce the launch of my new video series A Bite of Paris, on my You Tube channel, Eye Prefer Paris.
The format of the series is every week I visit either a restaurant, food shop or food market to taste my favorite French foods.
Click here to watch the latest episode and please hit the red subscribe button when you watch it.
Come experience Eye Prefer Paris live with Eye Prefer Paris Tours, which are 3-hour walking tours I personally lead. Eye Prefer Paris Tours include many of the places I have written about such as small museums & galleries, restaurants, cafes, food markets, secret addresses, fashion & home boutiques, parks and gardens and much more. In addition to my specialty Marais Tour, I also lead tours of Montmartre, St. Germain, Latin Quarter, in addition to Shopping Tours, Gay Tours, Girlfriend Tours, Food Tours, Flea Market Tours, Paris Highlights Tour
