Hiroshi Sugimoto

Polar Bear, 1976, Getty Museum

Movie Theater, Canton Place, Ohio, 1980, silver gelatin print, size varies

Black and white creates dramatic simplicity, inviting imagination to play with the photos of Sugimoto.

The Polar Bear focuses on eating with no mind toward who is watching.   The photo uses the "found material" of a diorama in the Americn Museum of Natrual History.  All of the extra diorama was cut out in an attempt to show the experience of nature and capture a moment in time.

In his Theater series Sugimoto uses a folding 4x5 camera to photograph entire movies.  He opens the shutter as the film starts and closed it at the end of the movie two hours later.  The resulting white light on the screen questions what is really seen in a movie.  The relationship of photography and time explore the nature of reality


pace gallery.com; gagosian.com; getty.edu; c4gallery.com