1993
Gelatin-silver print
119.4 x 149.2 cm

1993
Gelatin-silver print
119.4 x 149.2 cm
‘Can someone today view a scene just as primitive man might have?’ Hiroshi Sugimoto dates his fascination with the sea back to childhood. ‘My first personal memory is a seascape,’ he explains. ‘The sea has changed so much less than the land, so when human beings first gained consciousness, moving from an animal to a human state, the seascape might have made a strong impression on their minds. I can share that vision. I can compare my own memory with the first vision of the world.’
Begun in 1980, Sugimoto’s Seascapes have become a ‘lifetime project’ – and one of his most challenging technically. ‘Each wave has to be sharp and clear.’ In order to create his timeless maritime vistas, Sugimoto elevates his large-format film camera upon a cliff or raised patch of ground and arranges his viewpoint so that the resulting image is evenly divided between sea and sky. Devoid of any distracting elements (such as birds, boats or distant shores), Sugimoto’s compositions focus exclusively on the interaction of water, air and the light of the sun or moon. With their uniform composition, the Seascapes may appear like abstract paintings. ‘Not depicting the world in photographs, I’d like to think, but rather, projecting my internal seascapes onto the canvas of the world,’ the artist reflects.
