This volume presents the 92 most significant pictorial compositions of Ralph Gibson. His raw materials are the lines and shapes of seemingly mundane objects - a streetlamp, the back of a chair, a wine bottle, a human silhouette against the light. Based upon an unusual black-and-white technique, his photography is metaphorical rather than documentary.

The contents of Gibson's pictures are difficult to grasp, often even mysterious. Some compositions seem characterized by unusual control, structure and clarity, while others are opulent, seductive and full of hidden meaning. Gibson celebrates what he sees. The human form is generalized far beyond the concrete-associative representational approach of portraiture. In deliberately overlooking the signs and props of specific locale, Gibson raises individual figures to an abstract level of human existence.

His often fragmentary figures draw the viewer's attention to the design and composition of the pictorial details. The organic structure of such pictures clearly suggests that their origins are by no means random. With great precision and without sentimentality he succeeds in making his "message" comprehensible.