Why are his 8x10 photos not sharp?

Sometimes it seems we obsess about image sharpness on here. Sometimes

I wonder why it seems so important.

 

I had never really looked at any photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto

until recently. I just looked at his new book of architecture - not a

sharp print among them - but just stunning, incredible photographs (I

especially love the Corbusier chapel).

 

I looked through some of his other work - the sea shores and such and

it's quite wonderful. And (unlike say his movie theatre pictures)

nearly all "soft".

 

I started to see that sharpness isn't perhaps so important. (after

all, my vision of the world is pretty blurry...).

 

Any other thoughts on Sugimoto?

Tim,

 

I also like Hiroshi Sugimoto's work. Sometimes in the struggle to produce technically competent images, photographers forget that photographs should say something significant about being-in-the-world. Sugimoto's work suggests great solitude and peace, as though he looks at life from outside of time. Along with Toshio Shibata, he represents the best of Japanese photography, which is both culturally distinct and universally comprehensible. He can explore unsharp imagery because he obviously knows (and intuitively feels) what he is doing.

Tim...It would be wonderful to see an original print of one of Sugimoto's seascapes. Focused on a conceptual infinity, they capture something deeply essential about the sea. I look at the ocean every day and think often of Sugimoto's invisible oceans when doing so. I am partial to the invisible made visible and the concept of time in photography...A.

I have mixed reactions to Sugimoto's photographs, but his ideas

are always interesting. The waxwork and diorama photographs

leave me cold, although I like to think I 'get' them. The

seascapes and architectural images I love, and I'm sorry I

missed the chance to see them for real when they were on show

in Göteborg.

 

With well-known objects and structures there is no need to be

literal. People will recognise the Guggenheim or the ocean

without effort, and the cultural references are all in place right

from the get-go. This makes it easier to convey feelings and

abstract ideas, because the bleeding obvious has been covered

for you by others.

 

I have a sneaky plan to travel to Fragile Arch, El Capitan and the

other landscape hotspots of America and take two series of

photos. First, Struth-like images that show how close the hand

of man gets to these supposed wildernesses, and second

Sugimoto-like shots that wallow in impressionism. I'll print 'em

big and make millions.

<a href="http://www.robertkleingallery.com/gallery/sugimoto">Sugimoto at the Robert Klein gallery</a><br>

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It really seems to depend on what Sugimoto is photographing, whether it will be a sharp rendering, or an impression.

Some explanation is given in an interview (should all be on one line with no spaces):

http://www.eyestorm.com/feature/ED2n_article.asp?article_id=135&artist_id=13

great - thanks. The interview is pretty interesting. I like the idea of:

 

"All the details and all the mistakes disappear; there's a lot of shadows, melting. If the building is successfully done, then it will remain strong even out of focus"

 

and also

 

"As regards stopping, my policy is that I stop working on a series when I get tired of it myself, even though it is commercially viable. If I myself don't enjoy making it, I don't enjoy my life. But even though I set my policy a long time ago, I don't get tired of any of my series. Especially seascapes - the more I do, the more I appreciate them."