Hiroshi Sugimoto

Born in Tokyo in 1948, conceptual photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto is known for his love of black and white photography and his atmospheric approach to light and shadow. By the use of very long exposure times, like in his series »Seascapes« (from 1980) and »Theaters« (from 1978) he creates formally strongly reduced landscapes and spatial perspectives, which put the viewer into contemplative pondering through their unreal radiance. A theme that runs like a thread through all of his series is that of the memory and how it is presented and preserved. For this reason, his photographs frequently include motifs that take up this aspect of the preservation of memory or the depiction of the past: waxworks, cinemas, even showcases in museums. These motifs usually move beyond their typical modes of presentation, so that the concept of reality perception is addressed simultaneously.