Self-portrait by Hiroshi Sugimoto. I must say I like Sugimoto. The more I see of his work, the more his mind emerges, and the more I like the work.
His latest: Lightning Fields, from Modern Painters, at ARTinfo.
Mike
(Thanks to David Emerick)
(Thanks to David Emerick)
Standard disclaimer: "Random Excellence" as used here means randomly encountered excellence.
I love Sugimoto. I caught a show of his at the Hirshhorn many years ago, and his infinite Buddhas photo is the desktop of my computer. His seascapes are very interesting.
Posted by: Tom K. | Tuesday, 05 May 2009 at 02:06 PM
Mike,
I'm not sure there's anything random about the excellence of Sugimoto.
Posted by: Robin Dreyer | Tuesday, 05 May 2009 at 02:12 PM
We looked at some Suigmoto books at the Asian Arts Museum and just couldn't wrap our heads around his style. We must have missed our Intro to Fuzzy Photography 101 class...
Posted by: Richard Man | Tuesday, 05 May 2009 at 02:51 PM
There was a large retrospective of Sugimoto's work at the Hirschhorn Museum in Washington last year (or was it the year before last?) that was very impressive. The seascapes are particularly wonderful.
Posted by: Robert Meier | Tuesday, 05 May 2009 at 04:26 PM
Robin,
In your honor, I just added a "standard disclaimer" to the post.
Thanks!
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Tuesday, 05 May 2009 at 04:28 PM
I agree. Apart from his work itself, much of what he has to say I find either enlightening or at least worth mulling over; for example, his thoughts on honka-dori:
In Japanese cultural traditions, the act of emulating works of great predecessors is called honka-dori, "taking up the melody." Not scathed as mere copying, it is regarded as a praiseworthy effort.
Quite a different attitude to the accusations of plagiarism that too often accompany any reference or similarity to older works in much of the culture of photography (and other endeavours — particularly music).
Posted by: Pete | Tuesday, 05 May 2009 at 04:40 PM
That's funny, Mike. I should have added, thanks very much for this link, which I would have missed otherwise. He's amazing.
Posted by: Robin Dreyer | Tuesday, 05 May 2009 at 05:24 PM
I like his work very much. I particularly dig the Fuzzy Stuff.
Dude is out of this world.
Posted by: charlie d | Tuesday, 05 May 2009 at 05:37 PM
It took me a long time to realized that his works is so consistent. From his movie theaters, dioramas and building work. It's all about the perception of time. I went to a lecture that he gave at the Japan Society. Great guy and also a big collector of fossils.
Posted by: matiokawa | Tuesday, 05 May 2009 at 07:26 PM
The U2 album cover by this dude is better than the music in said album. Course they could have used a gutted wildebeest as an album cover and it still would have been better than the album.
I love the guy's stuff. That sonic atrocity was worth it just to discover him.
Posted by: Tom | Wednesday, 06 May 2009 at 12:21 AM
Yup, fantastic stuff. His portrait of Henry viii really cracks me up. Check out season 3 of PBS's Art 21 for more on him. He's definitely not one of those a$$hole artists!
Posted by: Jake | Wednesday, 06 May 2009 at 01:10 AM
I think he's the greatest living photographer.
Seen a retrospective of his work from the dioramas, theaters, seascapes and wax portraits at the Villa Manin. Extraordinary, minimalistic and very Japanese.
Posted by: David Vatovec | Wednesday, 06 May 2009 at 02:00 AM
I was about to agree with Robin, but then saw the disclaimer.
Posted by: Mike Ignatov | Wednesday, 06 May 2009 at 10:18 PM
I have had the good fortune to see many of his prints and not only are they technically wonderful, his work is conceptually very strong as well. The thought and creative processes that go into his work is exhaustive.
The first actual prints I saw (as opposed to seeing reproductions) where several of his seascapes. I spent ages with them. So seductive and enticing. Subsequently I have seen prints of his dioramas, movie screens, wax works and the 10,000 Buddha series.
I hope to see some of his recent colour work (he had a building built and specially plastered using a particular Japanese technique just so he could photograph the light inside from what I have read) that I have been told might be being shown at the Hong Kong Art Fair.
Ahhhh delightful suspense.
Posted by: David Boyce | Thursday, 07 May 2009 at 03:29 AM