In the beginning
Gilbert Garcin sold period lamps. A master of artificial lighting. That was before. Tasselled chandaliers, high-tech standing lamps. Even before he became a photographer, Gilbert Garcin was no stranger to the spotlight. In the daytime, he competed with the southern sun in his commerce of a thousand lamps. In the evening, he cancelled out the sky and shrouded his incandescent shop in darkness. Switching on, and off. On and off. Gilbert Garcin long hesitated between night and day.
In 1989, the expert in lighting finally cut free and took down the bakelite light-switch. The former luminariste closed his business in Marseille and reduced his playing field to a small black box, that of his camera. At the age of retirement and bifocals, Gilbert Garcin doted himself with one cyclopean eye. He became both lamp and switch at the same time, simplifying himself. Become an artist, he was at one with himself. […]