A vertical black and white photograph of a shirtless man. He is holding a chain. He is only visible from the shoulders down and the waist up.

Within his long career, Ralph Gibson has managed to combine his love of books and book-making, with the skills he learned as a Photographers Mate when he joined the United States Army in 1956. In 1969, Gibson moved to New York City to begin his own publishing company, Lustrum Press. Since then, he has published over 40 monographs, a specialized book on a single subject.

Gibson’s photographs are known for being on the edge of mysterious and erotic, leaving the viewer to build a narrative on their own for each image. His book “MONO” documents his first work using digital photography. Having been very critical of digital photography in the past, it wasn’t until he held a Leica M Monochrom camera for the first time that his mind began to change. Within the images of this book Gibson plays with shadows, on street corners, on the female form, and in the studio.