Hiroshi Sugimoto

Canton Palace, Ohio
Courtesy of ArtStor. See also: http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/theater.html

http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/LighteningFieldcomposed.html

Hiroshi Sugimoto is an extraordinary Japanese photographer and installation artist. Some of his work seems minimalistic- sometimes just a horizon line- but they require a lot of space to view and a lot of time to contemplate. These works are captivating. Most of Sugimoto's installations also command and manipulate empty space. I like the unity of his installations. I also am incredibly drawn to how a lot of his work relate to scale, proportions. But I am especially drawn to how subject matter relates to its backgrounds incredibly well.

I chose his work because I aspire to be as forward thinking with my photography as he is with his. Not only is his work diverse, it is original, something I think is difficult to do in photography. Yet, somehow his concepts seem so simple it is ridiculous to think no one else thought of it.

His most recent portfolio honors the works of scientists and photographic methods that developed from science. It is a masterful homage called Lightning fields. The first of two photographs above is from this work.
Technically speaking I have been inspired by Sugimoto's lighting prowess. Work's from his Theater's in the 1970s to 1993 not only are technically beautiful they are conceptually genius: each photograph of theaters is a whole movie's length.

Simple and elegant.