Hiroshi SUGIMOTO Lake Superior, Cascade River – 1995 Gelatin-silver print Signed in pencil on the cardboard mount on the front; title, date and number “19/25” embossed on the front of the print 42.2 x 54.3 cm (print size) 47.9 x 57.8 cm (sheet size) Gelatin-silver print; signed on the front of the cardboard mount in pencil; title, date and number blindstamped on the front of the print 16.61 x 21.37 in. (image) 18.85 x 22.75 in. (sheet) Provenance: Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco Private collection, France Hiroshi Sugimoto is widely recognised for his photographs that explore time, space and perception. Sugimoto began photographing bodies of water with a large-format camera in 1980, giving rise to the ‘Seascapes’ series, which he continues to this day. Although his fascination with this subject has spanned several decades, his aim remains to ‘capture the sea as if seeing it for the first time’. For every body of water he visits, he takes several photographs reflecting different times of day, shutter speeds, exposure times and atmospheric conditions. The simplicity of this image — with a barely visible horizon separating the sea from the sky — suggests something both elemental and eternal. Air and water are essential to life, and the world’s lakes, rivers and oceans have played a vital role in the development of trade and other far-reaching human activities. Yet the body of water in this photograph seems untouched by civilisation or the vicissitudes of individual life. Hiroshi Sugimoto is widely celebrated for photographs that explore time, space and perception. Sugimoto began photographing bodies of water with a large-format camera in 1980, resulting in the ‘Seascapes’ series, which continues to this day. Although his fascination with the subject has spanned decades, his aim remains to “capture the sea as if it were being seen for the first time.” For each body of water he visits, he takes multiple photographs reflecting different times of day, shutter speeds, exposure times and atmospheric conditions. The stark simplicity of this image — with a barely visible horizon line dividing sea and sky — suggests something both elemental and eternal. Air and water are vital to life, and the world’s lakes, rivers and oceans have been essential to the development of trade and other far-reaching human activities. Yet the body of water in this photograph seems untouched by civilisation or the vicissitudes of individual lives. Hiroshi SUGIMOTO