Hiroshi Sugimoto

Sugimoto began his work with Dioramas in 1976, a series in which he photographed displays in natural history museums. He is interested in the common cultural assumption that cameras always show raw reality, an assumption that traps many viewers, who assume, for example, that the animals in his shots are alive, until they examine the images carefully.

His Portraits series, begun in 1999, is based on a similar idea. Sugimoto photographs wax figures of Henry VIII and his wives in the museums of Madame Tussauds. These figures are based on 16th-century portraits; this time, Sugimoto tries to recreate the lighting used by the painter.

Begun in 1978, the Salles de cinéma series led him to photograph old American cinemas and drive-ins. Sugimoto chose to expose the film for the duration of the session, with the cinema's projector providing the sole source of light. The luminous, intensely white screen is at the center of the composition, with the architectural details and cinema seats becoming the sole subjects of these photographs. The single source of light gives these works an unreal aspect, and gives Sugimoto the opportunity to show the passage of time through the snapshot technique of photography. The artist collaborated with Hermès in 2012.

In 2019, he directed the short film Breathing for the 3ème Scène.