Hiroshi Sugimoto
Photographs seascapes, cinema screens and wax figures with exposures measured in hours.
Hiroshi Sugimoto was born in Tokyo in 1948, studied in Los Angeles, and has worked in New York since 1974. The projects are conceptual and are pursued over decades. Theaters are made by opening the shutter for the length of a feature film, so the screen burns out to pure white and lights the auditorium. Seascapes divide every frame exactly in half between water and air, photographed worldwide over forty years, and are deliberately almost indistinguishable from one another. Dioramas and Portraits photograph museum tableaux and wax figures so that they read as living. He also works as an architect and has restored Noh theatre.
Everything is editioned, usually in fives, and print size is part of the edition, so the same image exists as separate works at different scales. He prints in gelatin silver to an exacting standard and the tonal subtlety is the point, which makes any surface damage or fading disproportionately serious; the prints are also usually mounted and framed to his specification. Signature, title, edition and date are normally in pencil on the verso or on a label. The studio and the representing galleries are the reference for edition details.
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