From June 10 through July 10, Blind magazine is partnering with MPB, Europe’s leading camera reseller, and legendary American photographer Ralph Gibson for a unique international giveaway. Photography enthusiasts are invited to enter for the chance to win Gibson’s own Leica M Typ 246 digital rangefinder camera — used by the artist over the past 15 years — together with its Summilux 50mm f/1.4 lens and a signed and numbered print from his celebrated 1996 series Light Years.

More than a contest, the initiative offers photography audiences the chance to hold a piece of photographic history, and a true collector’s item: the camera Gibson used to shape his vision as he continued refining the formal language that has defined his work for over five decades. Designed exclusively for black-and-white image-making, the camera became central to his exploration of tonal abstraction and compressed form.

"Whatever you do: try to be original. The real question, for somebody serious about photography, is: does the camera inform how you see, or do you inform the camera how you see?"
— Ralph Gibson

Alongside the Leica M Typ 246 and Summilux 50mm f/1.4 lens, the winner will receive a signed and numbered print from Light Years, Gibson’s landmark 1996 publication surveying more than three decades of his work. Presented in a clamshell box ready for framing, the image exemplifies Gibson’s unmistakable visual language: fragments, shadows, cropped bodies, and formal tension distilled into pure photographic form.

RALPH GIBSON
Ralph Gibson, born in Los Angeles in 1939, trained in the US Navy and a one-time assistant to both Dorothea Lange and Robert Frank, has used Leica cameras exclusively since 1961. In 1970, he founded Lustrum Press and published The Somnambulist, a groundbreaking work that established him as one of photography’s most original artistic voices. Over the course of his career, he has published more than thirty books and received numerous international honors.

MPB
MPB is the world’s largest platform for used photo and video kit. Founded in 2011, the company is committed to making creative equipment more accessible and sustainable by recirculating cameras and lenses through a circular model designed for visual storytellers.

BLIND MAGAZINE
Blind Magazine is an online publication dedicated to photography and visual culture, covering photographic news as well as cultural, social, and geographic issues through the lens of contemporary image-making.