Hiroshi Sugimoto

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Hiroshi Sugimoto (杉本博司, Sugimoto Hiroshi), born in 1948, is a Japanese photographer currently dividing his time between Tokyo and New York City. His catalog is made up of a number of series, each having a distinct theme and similar attributes.

His use of an 8×10 large-format camera and extremely long exposures are two techniques which have garned Sugimoto a reputation as a photographer of the highest technical ability. Sugimoto is equally acclaimed for the conceptual and philosophical aspects behind his work as he is for his technical ability.

Sugimoto began his work with "Dioramas" in 1976, a series in which he photographed displays in natural history museums. The cultural assumption that cameras always show us reality tricks many viewers into assuming the animals in the photos are real until they examine the pictures carefully. His series "Portraits", begun in 1999, is based on a similar idea. In that series, Sugimoto photographs wax figures of Henry VIII and his wives. These wax figures are based off of portraits from the 1500s and when taking the picture Sugimoto attempts to recreate the lighting that would have been used by the painter.

Begun in 1978, Sugimoto's Theatres series involved photographing old American movie palaces and drive-ins, exposing the film for the duration of the entire film, the film projector providing the sole lightning. The luminescent screen in the centre of the composition, the architectural details and the seats of the theatre are the only subjects in the photographs, and the unique lighting gives the works a surreal look, as a part of Sugimoto's attempt to reveal time in photography.