Hiroshi Sugimoto

杉本博司

Hiroshi Sugimoto (杉本博司, Sugimoto Hiroshi), born on February 23, 1948, is a Japanese photographer and architect. He leads the Tokyo-based architectural firm New Material Research Laboratory.

Sugimoto has spoken of his work as an expression of ‘time exposed’, or photographs serving as a time capsule for a series of events in time. His work also focuses on transience of life, and the conflict between life and death.

Sugimoto is also deeply influenced by the writings and works of Marcel Duchamp, as well as the Dadaist and Surrealist movements as a whole. He has also expressed a great deal of interest in late 20th century modern architecture.

His use of an 8×10 large-format camera and extremely long exposures has garnered Sugimoto a reputation as a photographer of the highest technical ability. He is equally acclaimed for the conceptual and philosophical aspects of his work.

Grant/Award/Honor

  • 1977 C.A.P.S. (Creative Arts Public Service) Fellowship, New York
  • 1980 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, New York
  • 1982 National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C.
  • 1988 Mainichi Art Prize, Tokyo
  • 1999 Glen Dimplex Artists Award, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
  • 1999 International Center of Photography, Fifteenth Annual Infinity Award: Art, New York
  • 2000 Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Parsons School of Design, New School University, New York
  • 2001 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography, Gothenburg, Sweden
  • 2006 PHotoEspaña Prize, Madrid
  • 2009 Praemium Imperiale Award for Painting, Tokyo
  • 2010 Medal with Purple Ribbon, Tokyo
  • 2013 Officier de L'ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Paris
  • 2014 Isamu Noguchi Award, New York
  • 2017 The Royal Photographic Society, Centenary Medal, London
  • 2017 Person of Cultural Merit, Tokyo

List of Photobooks by Hiroshi Sugimoto

22 items