Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Exposed

Every time I view the sea, I feel a calming sense of security, as if visiting my ancestral home; I embark on a voyage of seeing.    - Hiroshi Sugimoto

Hiroshi Sugimoto's Time Exposed is a haunting portfolio of images that offer a primordial, non-linear sense of time. The artist created these seascapes between 1980 and 1991, yet chose to use a large-format camera, long exposure, and 19th-century techniques.

Transformed into a suite of 50 lithographs, these images capture vastly different bodies of water around the world in different conditions and at different times of day. Visually minimal, they represent wholeness, infinity, and the sublime beauty of quietude.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website 

Whether you go or not, a beautifully-printedbook of the same name, Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Exposed, contains examples from his three major series of works, collections that have been built over many years: photographs of museum dioramas and wax museum figures that emphasize the timelessness of these frozen, deceptively lifelike moments; meditative, monochromatic seascapes; and time-lapse photographs of luxurious, old-fashioned theaters and minimalist drive-ins. An interview with Sugimoto, and an essay by Thomas Kellein lend insight and understanding to this remarkable photographer's work.

Select Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Exposed