Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Theaters by Hiroshi Sugimoto


I really enjoyed looking at Hiroshi Sugimoto's work because it emphasizes that photography is more than just taking pictures. While Hiroshi Sugimoto's "Theaters" offers an insight into the phenomenology of photography and how it intersects with memory, I think just as intriguing is the emphasis placed on value in his photography. His high-contrast images, which always seem to have stark white and black areas, show how much difference subtle changes in exposure and development time can change the aesthetic quality of a photograph, and how important the consideration of value is (especially in a black-and white composition). The light reflected onto the ceiling of the theater in this image becomes a compositional element in itself, something that would have been lost in a less carefully considered exposure.

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