Digital Photo Media: Hiroshi Sugimoto

Hiroshi Sugimoto, a well known Japanese photographer is currently dividing his time between Tokyo, Japan and New York City, USA. Sugimoto has stated that most of his work focuses on the expression of 'time exposed', or photographs serving as a time capsule for a series of events of time.his work also are based on transience of life and the conflict between life and death. He is deeply influenced by the writings of Marcel Duchamp, Dadaist and Surrealist movements as a whole. He is famous for his technical ability of using the 8x10 large format camera and extremely long exposure. His work is really incredible. In my opinion, he really did a very good job in portraying time in his work. Also a unique way of using the old cameras and long exposures.

I really admire his work. One of his best work was the "Theatres". A series of photographs involving the old American movie theatres and drive-ins. He used a folding 4x5 camera and tripod. Opened his camera shutter and exposing the film for the duration of the entire movie. The film project will be the only light source. The luminescent screen in the centre of the composition, the chairs and architectural details are the subject. The long exposure and unique lighting will give the photograph a surreal look as it is part of his motive in revealing time in photgraphy.

Another piece of his work which I really like is the 'Seascapes'. A series of photographs portraying seas and it's horizons. Sugimoto used an old-fashioned large-format camera to make exposures of varying duration (up to three hours). Various location were used such as the Artic Ocean and the Black Sea. The black and white picture are all at the same size and divided exactly in half by the horizon line.