Ralph Gibson - BLACK TRILOGY [COMPLETE BOOK] - 2017

THE BLACK TRILOGY 1970-1974 - RALPH GIBSON

SPECIAL BOOK: COMPLETE MONOGRAPH in 1 SINGLE BOOK OF GIBSON'S 'The Somnambulist' (1970), 'Déjà Vu' (1972), and 'Days at Sea' (1974).

Unreleased photography book by Ralph Gibson, arising from the photographer’s project to compile in a single volume all the photographs of his “Surrealist Adventure” from 1970 to 1974, which were the subject of three legendary publications by Lustrum Press: “Days at Sea,” “The Somnambulist,” and “Déjà vu.” The entire Retrospective in one grand, unreleased photography book by Ralph Gibson entitled “the BLACK TRILOGY”!

Sublime edition, approx. 200 pages in duotone black-and-white engravings of the most surreal and artistic photographs by the indispensable 20th‑century photographer Ralph Gibson.

A grand masterpiece of 20th-century photography, Gibson is regarded as a master of artistic and sophisticated photography. Contemplative and unpublished photographs, a true wonder of photography, an absolutely ultra-photogenic book, and in very good to excellent condition!


Some descriptive elements:

Ralph Gibson (born in 1939 in Los Angeles) is one of the leading figures of American photography. Initially an assistant to Dorothea Lange, then to Robert Frank, he quickly abandoned reportage to develop a very personal photographic style, contributing to the emergence of American “fine art photography”: superb prints with high-contrast values, a very strong graphic charge, opening onto dreamlike, sensual and mysterious forays.

In the 1970s, Gibson founded his own independent publishing house, Lustrum Press, and he embarked on publishing his “Black Trilogy”: The Somnambulist (1970), Déjà-vu (1972), Days at Sea (1974). Three artist books that would earn him international recognition. With these works, he defines an unprecedented visual communication vocabulary in service of his eminently surrealist personal vision, nourished by the lessons of European modernity from the interwar period, as well as by French literary or cinematic culture, those of the Nouveau Roman or the Nouvelle Vague.

Very soon, the 'Black Trilogy' will become the model around which an entire generation of young American photographers (Larry Clark, Danny Seymour, Mary Ellen Mark…) or French photographers (Yves Guillot, Arnaud Claass…) will identify themselves.
This catalogue presents itself as a facsimile of the three books, now exhausted and unobtainable, collected in a single volume. In his text, Gilles Mora will explain how the images constituting the 'Black Trilogy' have become incomparable icons of American photography.


As photogenic as Mark Cohen, Sudre, Ronis, or Eggleston, an ultra-photogenic book and photographs that are perfectly artistic!


A unique and grandiose specimen, especially photogenic and captivating!


Very good!


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