Hiroshi Sugimoto: Architecture

The latest in Damiani and MW Editions' Sugimoto project collects his majestic images of classic modernist buildingsIn 1997 Hiroshi Sugimoto (born 1948) began a series of photographs of significant works of modernist architecture intending Òto trace the beginnings of our age via architecture.Ó One of the hallmarks of SugimotoÕs work is his technical mastery of the medium. He makes photographs exclusively with an 8 x 10 view camera and his silver gelatin prints are renowned for their tonal range total lack of grain wealth of detail and overall optical precision. In making the Architecture photographs however he inverted his usual process: ÒPushing out my old large-format cameraÕs focal length to twice-infinity ... I discovered that superlative architecture survives the onslaught of blurred photography. Thus I began erosion-testing architecture for durability completely melting away many of the buildings in the process.ÓIn this volume which includes 19 previously unpublished images the language of architectural modernism is distilled in photographs of Le CorbusierÕs Villa Savoye Mies van der RoheÕs Seagram Building and Frank GehryÕs Guggenheim Bilbao. By virtue of their blurriness and lack of color the images strip down buildings to their essence what we might imagine was the architectÕs first pure vision of form. The details of construction and imperfections that are a natural result of a massive collaborative human undertaking are absent and instead light and shadow define the forms of these buildings. The Architecture photographs continue the artistÕs longstanding investigations of the passage of time and history. Are these monuments to human ingenuity and the power of the industrial age as eternal as they seem?

Hardcover: 160 pages

Publisher: Damiani/MW Editions (September 17 2019)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 886208658X

ISBN-13: 978-8862086585

Product Dimensions: 10 x 0.8 x 11 inches

Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds