Hiroshi Sugimoto.

Summary of the subtitles (Hiroshi Sugimoto)

Hiroshi Sugimoto explains that his photographic work begins with vision and concept, which then determines how he photographs. He links his different series through recurring ideas—especially time, death, emptiness/nothingness, meditation, and the idealized way an artwork should be perceived.

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Artistic techniques, concepts, and creative processes shown

1) “Theater” series: photographing the passage of time

• Concept: Turn a film into a study of nothingness/emptiness rather than images.
• Technique/process:
  • Bring a camera into a movie theater.
  • Open the shutter when the movie begins (when the title appears).
  • Leave the shutter open for the entire movie duration (2–3 hours, or whatever the length is).
  • Close the shutter when the ending credits appear.
  • Process the film afterward so that the screen becomes white, with the audience appearing as reflections of that light (people are present in the radiant wash, not as normal scene detail).

2) Seascapes: meditation through strict composition and waiting

• Concept: Show pure air and water, remove distractions, and gain a time-free mental state.
• Technique/process:
  • Search the world for coastal seascapes (e.g., Europe; British/French/German coasts; Japan; also mentions Jamaica/Caribbean).
  • Aim for a very restricted composition:
    • Horizon line centered
    • Split form: half sky / half water
    • No boats/yachts/extra elements.
  • Use a marked camera reference to register the horizon:
    • Make a mark to indicate where the horizon line should be.
    • In fog/rain, wait until the horizon becomes visible.
    • Then align/register the horizon accordingly.
• Creative effect: He describes it as a form of meditation—losing awareness of time and being “drone into” the water’s detail.

3) Absence of humans (landscape as a “three human state” idea)

• Concept: Landscapes represent human consciousness conceptually, not literal people.
• Artistic choice: He states that no human appears because he wants to address an abstract “human state” within the landscape.

4) Wax portrait series: photographing fixed subjects and “idealized” belief

• Concept: Not interested in living people; interested in wax figures that don’t move.
• Technique/process:
  • Create or use wax portrait figures (mentions a studio setup and soft lighting).
  • Use very soft lighting to resemble older painting aesthetics (compares it to 15th–16th century Flemish/“Lambland” style lighting).
  • Use long exposures (described as around 20 minutes per shot).
• Creative idea: Exploits how viewers believe photographs—using the “nature” of photographic images to make wax figures feel convincingly alive/idealized.

5) Architecture series: intentional defocus to reach an idealized vision

• Concept: Go “backwards” in time—capture the building before it is built, as an ideal stage of vision.
• Technique: Photograph architecture intentionally out of focus.
• Artistic intention: Avoid treating the images as informational records; instead preserve an idealized, time-related perception.

6) Buddha series: panoramic, systematic coverage of a large collection

• Concept: Ideal conditions for viewing; a feeling of ownership/being owned by the sculptures.
• Technique/process:
  • Mentions a set of 1,000 Buddhist sculptures (12th–13th century context).
  • Photograph them systematically:
    • Use panoramic views, shooting section by section.
    • Result: about 48 photographic images that together convey all 1,000 sculptures by showing their differences in composition.
  • He emphasizes photographing under conditions that resemble how people in that era would have looked at them.

7) Video version of the Buddha series: time, speed, and image “melting”

• Concept: Translate sequential encounters into a video experience that accelerates perception.
• Technique/process:
  • Use a video camera moving through/examining his exhibition space.
  • Start focused on one Buddha image, then shift focus progressively to the next.
  • Increase speed over time until images become so blurred they “melt” and nearly disappear (unintelligible/abstract).

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Main recurring creative themes

• Vision + concept first, then method follows.
• Time as a subject (and linked to death).
• Emptiness / nothingness expressed through controlled photographic exposure and abstraction.
• Meditation and altered perception of time.
• Idealized perception rather than straightforward documentation (in Theater, seascapes, architecture, sculpture/video).

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Mentioned creators or contributors at the end

• No other creators/contributors are explicitly named in the subtitles as participants.
• The video is about Hiroshi Sugimoto (main subject).