HIROSHI SUGIMOTO
Fossils work almost the same way as photography... as a record of history. The accumulation of time and history becomes a negative of the image. And this negative comes off, and the fossil is the positive side. This is the same as the action of photography.
-- Hiroshi Sugimoto
Sugimoto's practice is rigorously conceptual. However, his pictures are also extremely seductive and visually stimulating. He is obsessed with the relationship between photography and time and each project is a kind of self-contained analytical enquiry. I really enjoyed the relationship between the exclusively black and white images and the Brutalist building. The curation was excellent and the lighting superb. A thoroughly enjoyable experience. I decided to take a creative approach to documenting the images using close-ups, dramatic crops, odd angles and finding relationships between the building and the work. This really enhanced my experience of the exhibition.
Within these photographs taken by Hiroshi Sugimoto he has taken the main focus of museum exebitions of animals.He has taken the photos in the correct lighting and with the right camera so he has captured the photos without it looking like there was a peice of glass between the exebition and the camera.Another thing to notice about this series of photographs is how each photographs looks like a painting.The photos are peaceful and zen when you look at them and there is no hectic use of lines in any of the photos compaired to other photograsphers work.
In these photographs Sugimoto has taken an even more abstract rought compared to his other photographs.He has taken photos of abstract or contempory objects that might not make sence to us straight from looking at it,however there is something very zen and beautiful about these random objects.In the first pitcher we see a spireling object that we can imagine goes on forever,for me my eye especially goes straight to the slight inperfection at the bottom as it is the only thing in the photo that could possibly be flawed.In the second photo i can see buildings in a very straight foward fashion however the imperfection in this photo is that it has been taken out of focus as a sylealistic choice which makes the photo stand out even more and eye catching.In the last photo i can not tell what it is however again the photo has been taken out of focus which makes such a simple photo stand out.
This section of photos was my person favourate out of all the photos in the exebition.These photos show murders of people many years ago and i think by them showing these such grusom yet aesteticly pleasing photos there becomes an even more powerful message behind each of these photos.I have shown some of them without the frame and the rest with the frame in the shot i did this as i thought the white of outside the frame really makes the black and white photos more eye capturing and appeling for people looking at them.
In Hiroshi Sugimoto's exebition overall within the content of there exebition they have explored calming and abstract photography where the person viewing there photos can look at them and feel very calm and zen within the photos.He has displayed his photographs in a very simple but effective way having them seperated from each other in a simple black frame and a white brim, by him doing this you can view his photos without feeling there is to much going on within the photographs and you can really take your time to look at them one by one without looking at to many things going on at once.The similaritys between all the images is the way you feel while looking at them even the ones with a more disterbing feeling with them being less abstract and more naturalistic all the images are simple and inline so you do not feel like there is to much going on when looking at the photographs.However there were some differnces within the photographs such as the sudden differnce from absteract to naturalistic, by Sugimoto having a part of the exhibition in the lower floor of just murder images after looking at his peacful zen photos you leave feeling slightly uneasy even when the majority of his photos having the complete opposite effect.I personally found all of Sugimotos photos very effective and beautiful as well as imspiering for my own work in the future.
Moriyama:
To focus on reality or be concerned with memory, choices that, at first glance, seem opposite are, in fact, identical twins for me.
-- Daido Moriyama
I was very excited to see this retrospective exhibition of the work of Daido Moriyama. Taking over the entire gallery, the show is packed with images from the photographer's 60 year career and imaginatively curated. It was great to see so many of the publications that have made Moriyama famous and which demonstrate his interest in the distribution of images within the media industry. My favourite display was Moriyama's response to Nicéphore Niépce's photograph Point de vue du Gras. Entitled Letttre à St. Loup, Moriyama's images are a kind of homage to the origins of photography and its language of light and shadow.
Overall in Moriyama's exhibition the content of their photographs were again very abstract with some naturalistic photographs like Sugimoto's exhibition and i think by him using both of these it really makes specific photographs eye captering to people viewing his execution.Sometimes you will not know the meaning behind a photo and be confused about it howver the sence of freedom that it gives the viewer is very creative and something you will take away from after seeing the photographs.The photos are displayed being very close together with some of the photes even overlapping,by Moriyama doing this he creates an even more hectic feel to his photographs as you do not know where to look as there is so much going on even in one photographs.I similatrity that Moriyama has with Sugimoto with there work is how creative they have got with there photos and how much is left for the viewer to figure out.Hoever a differnce is the way they have layed out there photos with Moreiyama's being so caotic and Sugimoto's being much more calm and tranquil.Overall i really enjoyed exploring and looking at Moriyama's photos and reading about what the thought process behind his photographs were due to them having such a unique and absteract way about them.