Hiroshi Sugimoto
In Praise of Shadows (2003)
Lithograph
46 x 28.5cms
Edition of 225, signed and numbered
In 2003 Hiroshi Sugimoto's Serpentine exhibiton included photographs which focused on a survey of his series Seascapes, produced over the previous two decades, as well as the Pinetree Landscapes.
The seascapes, central to Sugimoto’s work since he began the series in 1980, were shot at remote locations around the world. The seascapes take the form of black-and-white photographs depicting the meeting of the sea and sky, referred to by the artist as ‘water’ and ‘air’ because they are among the oldest of Earth’s elements.
This limited edition shows another of Earth's oldest elements, 'fire'. Sugimoto recorded the “the life of a candle" by lighting a candle, stopping open his camera lens and opening his windows. The documentation remaining is of the candle's afterglow, affected by the midsummer night's breeze. This domesticating of fire, Sugimoto felt, marked humankind's ascendancy over other species:
For the last several million years since, we’ve illuminated the night with flames
- Hiroshi Sugimoto