Hiroshi Sugimoto is a conceptual
artist who works in many media. His major projects are conceived and executed
over many years: key principles and themes behind his work involve preserving
memory and time. “Still Life” is an exhibition of thirteen huge prints from the
artist’s “Diorama” series, the earliest having been produced in 1976 (shortly
after Sugimoto moved to the USA) and the latest in 2012.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
At first glance Sugimoto’s large
scale monochrome prints appear to be perfect photographs of the natural world,
featuring beautiful, evocative landscapes and key wildlife from around the
world. Turtles and iguanas populate a Galapagos island, wolves roam the Alaskan
wilderness, Californian condors soar above canyons and mountains, ostriches and
warthogs populate an African savannah, penguins and skuas (above) occupy a
pristine beach in South Georgia. In many ways these photographs appear to echo
and perhaps improve upon Salgado’s wilderness masterpiece “Genesis”. There is
an idealised, painterly feel to the landscapes that is reminiscent of the works
of the great romantic French artist Poussin…..
The connection with Poussin is
understandable, because the landscapes are, indeed, idealised (as were many of
Poussin’s) and have been painted. The foreground animals are not real either:
they are (taxidermy) models, placed in dioramas displayed in museums and
galleries around the world. Sugimoto began his project after noting, when
looking at dioramas, that: “I made a
curious discovery: the stuffed animals positioned before painted backdrops
looked utterly fake, yet by taking a quick peek with one eye closed, all
perspective vanished, and suddenly they looked very real. I'd found a way to
see the world as a camera does. However fake the subject, once photographed,
it's as good as real".
Once the viewer realises that the photographed scenes are artificial,
constructed for visitors to museums and galleries, the eye turns to study the quality of the enormous prints, which comprise sharp tones of black and white together with an
apparently infinite number of shades of grey. These photographs are a beautiful
but entirely artificial evocation of a magnificent but idealised world, a world
that perhaps once existed but one which is now rapidly changing.
So what is the purpose of Sugimoto’s forty year project? The concepts of
memory, preservation and time are key elements of his work, including
this project. Using his large format camera, special lighting and long
exposures, he has captured these diorama scenes in great detail and with the
utmost accuracy. The resultant works are artificial representations of
artificial scenes. They celebrate life, yet are devoid of it. They depict
nature as it may once have been; they preserve a memory that, whilst accurate,
was based on deception.
Conclusions and Learning Points
We spent around 40 minutes
viewing this exhibition. In this time we were able to enjoy the very high
quality of Sugimoto’s monochrome prints and appreciate the imagination and work
of the artists and curators who had designed and produced the original
dioramas. It would be easy to say that this work is based solely on the concept
that the camera records a two dimensional image of a scene that the human eyes record in three dimensions; that it transforms an obviously lifeless scene
into one that appears, at least initially, to be full of life. However, more
importantly the project reinforces Sugimoto’s interest in the changes in the
natural world wrought by historical events. As he writes: “all over the planet,
nature is being transformed into un-nature at breakneck speed. My life is part
of natural history. I long to know where that history came from and where it is
going.”
I enjoyed this exhibition as much
for the philosophy behind it as for the appreciation of the displayed prints.
Like Sugimoto, I understand the beauty of the natural world and don’t want to
see it vanish as man-made change accelerates the disappearance of nature’s
diversity and our remaining wilderness areas. Whilst I prefer to photograph the
reality of the natural world I do so in the knowledge that some of my
photographs will quickly become just memories of scenes long gone and I will
never be able to reproduce them. The exhibition reinforces both my wish to record nature and preserve the record for future memory and my drive to use photographs to demonstrate to others the damaging changes that we are forcing upon the natural world.
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