Hiroshi Sugimoto on Photography as a Form of Timekeeping

While he may technically practice as a photographer, artist, and architect, Hiroshi Sugimoto could also be considered, from a wider-lens perspective, a chronicler of time. With a body of work now spanning nearly five decades, Sugimoto began making pictures in earnest in 1976 with his ongoing “Diorama” series. In 1980, he started what may be his most widely recognized series, “Seascapes,” composed of Rothko-esque abstractions of the ocean that he has taken at roughly 250 locations around the world. In more recent years, Sugimoto has also built a flourishing architectural practice, designing everything from a café in Tokyo to the currently-under-construction Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. As with his subtly profound work, Sugimoto bears tremendous wisdom and is regarded by many as one of the most deeply perceptive minds and practitioners at the intersection of time and art-making.

On the episode, he discusses his pictures as fossilizations of time; seascapes as the least spoiled places on Earth; and why, for him, the “target of completion” for a building is 5,000 years from now.

Special thanks to our Season 9 presenting sponsor, L’École, School of Jewelry Arts.

Show notes:

Hiroshi Sugimoto

[5:10] Pre-Photography Time-Recording Devices

[39:05] “Theaters”

[15:06] “Seascapes”

[32:31] “Diorama”

[17:16] Caspar David Friedrich

[25:14] Odawara

[28:52] “Aujourd’hui le monde est mort [Lost Human Genetic Archive]”

[44:19] “Abandoned Theaters”

[44:19] “Opera Houses”

[44:19] “Drive-In Theaters”

[49:52] “Architecture”

[51:12] Le Corbusier

[51:12] Mies van der Rohe

[55:30] New Material Research Laboratory

[55:30] Tomoyuki Sakakida

[59:23] Enoura Observatory

[59:23] Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden

[1:00:48] Katsura Imperial Villa

[1:01:05] Bruno Taut

[1:02:14] Donald Judd

[1:02:14] “Hiroshi Sugimoto: Five Elements in Optical Glass”

[1:06:47] Mingei

[1:06:47] Isamu Noguchi

[1:06:47] Dan Flavin

[1:09:15] Sugimoto Bunraku Sonezaki Shinju: The Love Suicides at Sonezaki

[1:09:15] At the Hawk's Well

[1:09:15] W.B. Yeats