Hiroshi Sugimoto

 


Hiroshi Sugimoto is a talented photographer who often uses black and white photography in combination with long exposures to capture images that surpass reality. I particularly enjoy the photos where he captures images of water and the sea and the long exposures of movie theaters. Sugimoto's images are simple and beautiful. I really enjoy the image above because of the clear cut down the middle where the sky separates from the water, and the beautiful blend of the tones of the water. 


Especially with Hiroshi Sugimoto's series of using long exposure to photograph entire movies in a movie theater, he seems to push the boundaries of reality. While the environment seems to look familiar to the viewer, the idea that we are actually looking at an entire movie captured as one image can lead us to question what reality is. It makes me wonder about how we perceive the world on a daily basis. What is our "shutter speed," and how would the world change if this were different. I often wonder if this is different among different species, especially species that have a short life span. It also makes me wonder about how we perceive time compared to each other and other animals. 


Using the method of long exposure allows the camera to capture reality in a way that our eyes cannot. Just because it is not the same reality we perceive does not make it less real, because the image could not exist otherwise. If I remember correctly, these images are relatively dated, so for Sugimoto to push the boundaries of photography in such early stages of photography is really impressive. 



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