This post first ran in 2009.

Sometimes you come across work that engages you so completely, and at first you think, why didn’t I think of this, but then you let that go and just roll yourself up in the wonderful images. That’s how I felt discovering Gilbert Garin’s photographs. At 80, Mr. Garcin is an inspiration in so many ways.

“Gilbert Garcin spent most of his life managing a lamp factory in France. At 65, he retired and took up a trick photography workshop. For the past ten years he has been creating comical, surrealistic photographs which warmly highlight sometimes cold, existential questions. Garcin inhabits this strange world and ponders it together with the viewer; with Garcin you have a dedicated, but perplexed, guide.”

In February, Gilbert’s work was celebrated at the Festival at Rennes:

In addition, Mr. Garcin just closed a retropsective at Espace Jacques Villeglé – Place d’Art Contemporain in Saint Gratien, France.