Photographer Research/ work related to time

Hiroshi Sugimoto- (born Tokyo, 1948) is one of Japan’s most important contemporary artists. Throughout his career, he has avoided choosing easily identifiable subjects, preferring, instead, to explore things intangible, ephemeral, and even non-existent. In doing this, Sugimoto’s photography has added to the dialogue critiquing traditional conceptions of the media as a means of capturing the appearance of the world objectively and truthfully.  

Typical of Sugimoto’s work are starkly minimal photographs of seascapes, movie theaters, and architecture, as well as highly detailed images of wax portraits, Buddhist sculptures, and natural history dioramas. Looking at his work encourages reflection on the nature of time, space, culture, and on the way we perceive reality. Sugimoto juxtaposes precise detail in his photographs of wax figures and dioramas against dreamlike looks at actual landscapes and buildings. He explores the natural human impulse to represent reality, a drive that has inspired artists throughout history and is embodied by photography itself.(Secondary Research- http://www.hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/sugimoto/#collection=sugimoto)

Dioramas: Began his four-decade-long series Dioramas in 1974, inspired by a trip to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Surrounded by the museum's elaborate, naturalistic dioramas, Sugimoto realized that the scenes jumped to life when looked at with one eye closed. Recreated forestry and stretches of uninhabited land, wild, crouching animals against painted backgrounds and even prehistoric humans seemed entirely convincing with this visual trick, which launched a conceptual exploration of the photographic medium that has traversed his entire career. Focusing his camera on individual dioramas as though they were entirely surrounding scenes, omitting their frames and educational materials and ensuring that no reflections enter the shot, his subjects appear as if photographed in their natural habitats. He also explores the power of photography to create history--in his own words, "photography functions as a fossilization of time. Dioramas illustrates  a story of the cycle of life, death and rebirth, from prehistoric aquatic life to the propagation of reptile and animal life to Homo sapiens' destruction of the earth, circling back to its renewal, where flora and fauna flourish without man. Here Sugimoto writes his own history of the world, an artist's creation myth."

Portraits: Hiroshi Sugimoto here turns to the wax figures he first explored in his Dioramas series. Combining poetic imagination and noble elegance, this body of work presents life-size black-and-white portraits of historical figures--Henry VIII, each of his six wives and Oscar Wilde, among others--photographed in wax museums and dramatically lit so as to create haunting images. Featuring an interview with the artist by Tracey Bashkoff and essays by Carol Armstrong, Norman Bryson, Thomas Kellein and Nancy Spector, this book offers fresh insights into the work of this important contemporary artist. Portraits was created specially for the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin and was exhibited at the former Guggenheim Soho.

Architecture: 

Examples of his images:(Critically analysed and Described) Known for his long-exposure photographic series of empty movie theatres and drive-ins, seascapes, museum dioramas, and waxworks, Hiroshi Sugimoto has been turning his camera on international icons of twentieth-century architecture since 1997. His deliberately blurred and seemingly timeless photographs depict structures as diverse as the Empire State Building, Le Corbusier's Chapel de Nütre Dame du Haut, and Tadao Ando's Church of Light in Osaka. The resulting black-and-white photographs, shot distinctly out of focus and from unusual angles, are not attempts at documentation but rather evocation--meant to isolate the buildings from their contexts, allowing them to exist as dreamlike, uninhabited ideals. Among the other buildings represented in the series are Philippe Starck's Asahi Breweries, Fumihiko Maki's Fujisawa Municipal Gymnasium, the United Nations Building, the Chrysler Building, Giuseppi Terragni's Santelia Monument Como, the World Trade Center, Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building, Antonio Gaud''s Casa Batll* II, the 1922 Schindler House, and buildings by Frank Gehry, Frank Lloyd Wright, and many others in Europe, North America and Asia.

One of Hiroshi's most famous pieces of work that relates to time is his collective of work based around Theatres. 

Throughout the mid to late 1970s and upwards, Hiroshi Sugimoto documented the interior of movie theatres across the United States - invoking a classic procedure borrowed from Conceptual Art. He would open the shutter just before the 'first light' hit the screen and close it after the credits finished rolling and before the house lights came on. Using this method he was able to invert the subject/object relationship of the movie theatre and use the film itself to illuminate the proscenium and interior. 

My Initial response: 

Hiroshi Sugimoto's photographs of movie palaces and drive-in theatres pay homage to the role played by the cinema in the creation of a modern American myth. The concept of a place signifying a bygone era is central to these images. Sugimoto's work also investigates the notion of how time is captured on film. The artist simultaneously compresses time in moving imagery and enlarges it in still photography. Consequently, the movies, as a place and as a light show. 

Sugimoto, who was born in Tokyo in 1948 and now resides in New York, initiated the movie palace series in the late 1970's, photographing theatres in the North-east and Midwest United States from 1978 to 1980. In 1992 he broadened his approach to include depictions of drive-in theatres and in 1993 he returned to the subject of the classic indoor show-palaces, photographing the cinemas on the West Coast. Photographic essays on the dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and a series of seascapes occupied the intervening years. All of Sugimoto's photographs have been done as 20x24 inch gelatin silver prints.

The movie palace photos were made by placing an 8x10 camera at farthest reach from the screen. Frequently, Sugimoto positions himself in the balcony of the theatre. This imperious placement affords Sugimoto, and the viewer, full regard of the theatre, allowing him to take in the particulars of its architecture. The relationship of the viewer to the screen is inverted in the drive-in images; in these pictures the screen looms above the viewer.

Unlike the cineplexes of today, the movie palaces built in the United States during the 1920's and '30's were ornate, richly decorated structures. The "star system" was in place, soon to be followed by the attendant propaganda machinery of the fan letter and the fan magazine. The studios based in burgeoning Los Angeles had emerged as the dominant force in the world film industry. In 1927, "The Jazz Singer" heralded the advent of the talkies. 

Seen from the perspective of Sugimoto's camera, set at a literal and symbolic distance from the screen, these movie palaces become icons of nostalgia. The fantasy architecture speaks of an era of hopeful optimism which, in retrospect, seems disquieting for its unfulfilled promise. As the critic Vince Aletti has suggested, there is a sort of "overheated imagination" at work in these palaces which couldn't be sustained.  

The photographs of the drive-in theatres have a similar haunted feel to them. The first drive-in theatre was opened in 1933; by 1958, there were more than 4000 drive-in screens in the U.S. The drive-in as a cultural form managed to combine three of America's greatest inventions: film, cars and fast food. Sugimoto's photographs, however, remind us that the drive-ins, like the movie palaces, are dinosaurs. Today, only 837 drive-in screens remain in use. The carefully restored movie palaces and still active drive-ins are palimpsests. In their time, they were a vibrant, active part of contemporary culture. Today, they are part of a retrograde reaction to a society that is frequently perceived as being tawdry and lacking in glamour. Sugimoto's photographs are, to a degree, both informed by that reaction, and a commentary on it. 

In these darkened theatres, Sugimoto lights his images by opening the shutter of the camera and exposing the film for the duration of the screening of a feature movie. The result shows a blank screen, glowing ethereally in the centre of the photographic composition. The light projected from the screen illuminates the interior of the theatre, making discernible the architectural details that would normally not be accessible to a theatre-goer seated in the darkened room. 

The white screens stand as a symbol of the technologically innovative role the cinema once played in American cultural history. The screens seem to serve as a metaphorical beacon, calling on the viewer to acknowledge the significance these theatres held in their time for their audiences. There is also something sad and poignant in their message. The movie palaces and drive-ins were built as communal gathering places. In their time, they would have played to packed houses. Yet, in the light of the screens, the theatres are revealed to be empty. The void on the screens is complemented by the void in the theatres. 

It can be argued that painting is defined by the artist's efforts to fill the canvas, to create something where previously a void existed. Conversely, in photography, the image is defined by the parameters of the lens. The camera frames an object. Where painting moves outward from within, photography moves in from it's outer boundaries. Sugimoto's images are effective exemplars of this phenomenon. The theatres and drive-ins, framed by the camera, have a finite sense of space. The composition of these photographs, strongly anchored by the screens in their centre, pulls the viewer in. The screens of the drive-in theatres act as even more powerful magnets. Although they are surrounded by the infinite night sky, their draw is inescapable. At the same time, because the screens are devoid of any visual information, the eye returns to the space contained within the camera's frame. By carefully constructing the composition of these images, Sugimoto's command of spatial relationships between the screen at the centre and the surrounding architecture determines the path the viewer's eye will travel -first in, and subsequently, back outward. 

One of Hiroshi's most famous pieces of work that relates to time is his collective of work based around seascapes, Sugimoto began his series of seascapes in 1980, travelling to remote oceans, seas and lakes around the world. Using his preferred late-19th-century/early-20th century big box camera with black-and-white sheet film, he achieves high technical results with gradations and tonalities that make each photograph distinct and impeccably rich in detail. Perched on high cliffs, Sugimoto is able to look across the water and capture its vastness and mystery in a minimalist composition that relies solely on the water, the atmosphere, and the horizon line that precisely bisects his frame. (Secondary Research found on "http://www.tripoligallery.com/") 

(Evidence to show this information is trust worthy- Tripoli Gallery was on of the many galleries that held Exhibitions for Hiroshi's work ensuring that the public had the opportunity to view his iconic work. "Tripoli Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto. Hiroshi Sugimoto: Seascapes will be on view at 30a Jobs Lane from August 27 through October 21 (2014), with a public reception on Wednesday, August 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. This marks Sugimoto’s first solo exhibition at Tripoli Gallery." therefore any given description from this source must be trust worthy as they have personally dealt with Sugimoto's work in the past.

Annotations made based on his work on Seascapes:

Time, Narrative and Constructed Photography

Briefing on assignment:

Research- For Unit 7 I have been given the task to identify 3 photographers of my choice that includes a strong relevancy of work that in which based around the set theme of "Time Narrative and Constructed Photography". Once chosen a minimum of three photographers, the research of each individual will then critically analysed in depth about each photographer both from a descriptive and analytical point of view in addition of reviewing examples of there work which will then be clearly annotated.

Further progression on Unit 7 I will maintain a constant connection between my research and the work I produce that would be influenced by a selected photographer that I will choose to develop out of the minimum three photographers or more.

I will also mention in this project the specific aspect of analysing the characteristics and context of each given theme. In this case I will answer how is the photography I look at and the researching, affected by a wider social/ political/ cultural factors? What kind of photography is it- what genres would the work be categorised under. how is it used and where has it been seen by the public?

Throughout the course of research work on Unit 7 will write a reflection using "The Gibbs Method". This will consist on writing about how useful it was from my point of view and I went about it, as well as undertaking what I have learned and will that feed into my work (I.E the more I learn from this current assignment, the better understanding I will have on comprehending a wider perspective photography as a whole that will be now more familiar to me in comparison to the when I first started this project)

Gibbs Reflection cycles that I will follow:

One of my own personal parameters I plan to achieve is to complete the theory side of this assignment in the early stages of the project, in order to increase the period of time I spend on my practical work, so that I have more time to experiment with various techniques that I hope to include when producing my 4 individual high quality images.

Practical work- It will be necessary for me to experiment as well with other projects and as well as developing my practical work to ensure I overcome any problems enabling me to produce high quality outcomes. At each stage of this process considered as trial and error, when doing this I will make a record of what I do, why I do it and how it has affected on the development of both the idea and my practical skills.

For this I will use the same concept of Gibbs reflection but for my practical work that I will then Blog when completing an experiment concluded whether it was successful or not. (will also mention why was or was not successful- how I plan to overcome the error- how I could make the experiment better than the overall success it had originally have me.