French photographer Gilbert Garcin, known for surreal staged scenes, dies at 90

Gilbert Garcin, a French photographer who began his artistic career at age 60 after retiring as a lighting company executive, died on April 19, 2020, in Marseille at the age of 90. Born in 1929 in La Ciotat, Garcin discovered photography after joining a camera club in Allauch. He won a competition that led him to a workshop with photographer Pascal Dolémieux at the Rencontres d'Arles in 1992, where he learned to photograph cutout figures in the streets of Arles. This technique became his signature: using scissors, glue, and everyday objects (threads, ropes, frames, stones, buttons) to create black-and-white tableaux featuring his alter ego "Monsieur G." dressed in an old dark coat, often accompanied by his wife Monique. His work drew comparisons to Magritte, Duchamp, and the Surrealists, exploring themes of solitude, incommunicability, infinity, and the absurd. He referenced artists such as Paul Klee, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, Marcel Duchamp, and Parmigianino in his titles. Despite a career spanning only 25 years, he achieved international recognition through exhibitions, museums, festivals, and publications. His neighbor's unawareness of his artistic practice, as reported by Le Monde, underscored his quiet bourgeois life in Marseille.