Detail: The Crow Collection presents Tibet- The Land Closest to the Sky, Photographs by Marc Riboud, the first solo exhibition in Texas of one of photography’s most original and influential masters. Curated by Selina Ting, the exhibition presents Marc Riboud’s work in Tibet- photographs in color and black and white taken in 1985. More than two thirds of the photographs are previously unknown to the public. Also included is a collection of personal souvenirs and objects such as the photographer’s Leica camera, letters from his mentor Henri Cartier-Bresson, souvenirs from travelling, and more.
It was the passion to see and to photograph small pieces of the world that brought Marc Riboud to Tibet, and not to testify. Riboud has never claimed to exert any social role or seek any truth. In his words, “photography cannot change the world, but it can show the world, especially when it is changing.” His photographs of Tibet, taken before the ethnic submersion, speak of politics, religions, morals, culture, but above all, people. A single image blends everything together: faces, costumes, landscapes, buildings, shrines and, more secretly, ideas and dogmas. They move and inform us, resonating in time and space long after. Riboud has never given himself any mission or constraints. He hates labels as much as he hates dissertations on a process that is for him an instinct more than a discipline. “Taking pictures is like savoring life at 125th of a second…It is the instinct of the instant and the instant of the instinct,” says the photographer.