PHOTOGRAPHS
Sugimoto, Hiroshi
Japan (1948 - )
Bay of Sagami, Atami
1997
Gelatin silver print
16 13/16 x 21 5/16 in. (42.7 x 54.1 cm) image size; 19 3/8 x 23 1/2 in. (49.2 x 59.7 cm) sheet size; 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm) mount sheet size
Gift of Burt and Jane Berman
FA 2007.36
Keywords: Series: Seascape; Seascape (Sagami Bay, Japan)

The constant shifting of the sky beckons photographers with an irresistible call to capture. These skyscapes are flat and abstract as minimalist paintings, or deep and expressive as color fields. Some are instantaneous captures, while others blur speed, time and color in long exposures. Sugimoto’s monochromatic seascape treats the horizon line as an immutable border, dividing sea and sky into two timeless halves. Over the course of the hours-long exposure, the motion of waves and clouds are seamlessly smoothed, and all sign of human presence erased. Only depth, light—and the urge to be swallowed by the two—remain.

-- Label copy for Videowatercolors: Carel Balth Among His Contemporaries, October 15, 2011, to January 22, 2012.
Copyright credit: Copyright Hiroshi Sugimoto, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco