275
●
SUGIMOTO, HIROSHI (1948- )
The magnificent portfolio “Time Exposed,” with 50 plates, and including the frontispiece of the
IBM Courtyard inTokyo.Tri-tone offset lithographs, each 9
3
/
8
x12
1
/
8
inches (23.8x30.8 cm.), tipped
to mounts with the letterpress debossed title, date, and plate number on recto. Folio, brushed
aluminum portfolio case; with the colophon pages which give the edition of 500; contents loose as
issued. 1991
[8,000/12,000]
Hiroshi Sugimoto’s sublime studies of seascapes are meditational, grand, and elusive.The horizon lines—
some defined, some a hazy diffusion into the sky—are placed at the same plane in each image, creating
a sense of seamless, transcendent sameness. Although the locations are debossed in the white mounts
below each image (underlining Sugimoto’s technical exactness), they are largely interchangeable. The
photographs, made with a large-format camera and using a long exposure, are both meant to capture the
passage of time and, it seems, to create a sense of timelessness and placelessness.
Many of Sugimoto’s projects have used extended time as a component of the creation of the images, and
his series are by extension a philosophical consideration of mortality.They document the world as it is
(in this case the essential and life-giving resources water and air), but also reveal something of how the
world feels without us, the viewer. Sugimoto said, “To me photography functions as a fossilization of
time.” In apparent opposition to our concept of photography as a record of a moment, Sugimoto’s
statement implies that the medium has the potential to also serve as a record of what is no longer present.
