Hiroshi Sugimoto Cinema Theatre Gelatin Photographs

UP FOR SALE IS A SET OF "CINEMA SERIES" PHOTOGRAPHS FROM ARGUABLY ONE OF THE
2OTH CENTURY'S MOST IMPORTANT PHOTOGRAPHERS/ARTIST, HIROSHI SUGIMOTO.

THIS WORLD RENOWNED ARTIST HAS HIS WORKS EXHIBITED IN THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS
MUSEUMS AROUND THE WORLD.  ONCE HIS PRINTS ARE MADE, (IN VERY LIMITED
NUMBERS, USUALLY 25) HE NEVER GOES BACK AND PRINTS MORE COPIES.  THIS IS A
ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY TO OWN A VERY WELL KNOW TITLE AND A LESSER
KNOW, BUT RARER ONE.!

PRINT #1  THE MOST FAMOUS AND WELL KNOW..."CABOT STREET CINEMA."

Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japan, Tokyo, born 1948)
Cabot Street Cinema, Beverly, MA, c1979
Photograph, Gelatin-silver print, framed: Photograph=16 1/2" x 21 1/2" / Frame =29" x 33"

PRINT #2 A VERY, VERY RARE..."PROSPECT PARK"

Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japan, Tokyo, born 1948)
Prospect Park, NYC, c1977
Photograph, Gelatin-silver print, framed: Photograph=16 1/2" x 21 1/2" / Frame =29" x 33"

Hiroshi Sugimoto is an obsessive perfectionist who uses his cumbersome
10"x8" plate camera to photograph the same three subjects over and over
again: dioramas, film theatres and seascapes. The resulting black and white
prints are rich, subtle and, given the size of the negative, dense with
incidental detail. Inevitably, in an enterprise as formally rigorous as this
appears to be, one is sucked into trying to decide what, exactly, the
artist's three subjects have in common. A ³sense of imminence², as John Yau
suggested in ArtForum? A theatrical quality? The complete absence of any
human presence? In fact, of course, the search for insightful connections is
the oldest of critical fallacies. There doesn't have to be a link; perhaps
it was precisely the formal characteristics of these subjects that attracted
Sugimoto.
     On the other hand, it is always a mistake to ignore the practical
strictures underlying artistic creation. As it happens, while a 10"x8"
camera offers superb resolution and grain, it suffers from an impossibly
shallow depth of field. To judge by the great precision of these prints,
Sugimoto is unlikely to tolerate even the slightest degree of blur or lack
of focus; it is also evident that he makes exclusive use of available light,
avoiding the use of additional light sources such as strobes or floodlights.
Hence the attraction of static subjects allowing a long exposure time.
     In the case of the cinema interiors, Sugimoto gives new meaning to the
term available light. The camera shutter is left open during the projection
of an entire feature-length film in an otherwise empty auditorium; after a
hundred or so minutes, the screen has become a radiant white rectangle while
the rest of the interior is bathed in a soft, reflected light modeling every
curve and cranny. Were Sugimoto more of a conceptualist, he might play games
with the actual quality of the illuminating film: is the cumulative light
emanating from, say, La Notte more or less than that produced by The
Searchers? On the evidence of these prints, however, the artist's intentions
remain rooted in representation.
     He has certainly unearthed some mind-boggling cinemas in the United
States. The Ohio Theatre boasts a starry dome, twisted pillars and a
gigantic organ; a monumental renaissance frontage complete with a dozen or
so larger-than-life allegorical statues towers over the screen of a cinema
in Tampa; in Michigan, the Fox comes complete with Corinthian columns, huge
gilded peacocks and a spherical chandelier the shape (and, seemingly, the
size) of a montgolfier; the Prospect Park Theatre goes in for enormous
Moorish arches ; and the Cabot Street Cinema is decorated with
pseudo-pompeian wall paintings. All art history, in fact, is here
recapitulated. The only theatre not to allow Sugimoto access to an empty
auditorium was Radio City Music Hall in New York, so that in this image one
finds at last vague traces of human presence - a few dim figures seated here
and there.
     If the cinema theatres hold a distorting mirror up to art, then the
natural history dioramas clearly recapitulate evolution.