Hiroshi Sugimoto: In Praise of Shadows

April 17, 2015 - June 27, 2015

Japanese novelist Junichiro Tanizaki disdained the “violent” artificial light wrought by modern civilization. I, too, am an
 anachronist: rather than live at the “cutting edge” of the contemporary, I feel more at ease in the absent past. 

 Domesticating fire sure marks humankind’s ascendancy over other species. For the last several million years since, we’ve 

illuminated the night with flames. I decided to record “the life of a candle.” Late one midsummer night, I threw open the windows 
and invited in the night breeze. Lighting a candle, I also stopped open my camera lens. After several hours of wavering in the breeze, the candle burned out. Savoring the dark, I slowly closed the shutter. The candle’s life varied on any given night- short 
intensely burning nights, long constantly glowing nights― each different, yet equally lovely in its afterglow. -Hiroshi Sugimoto

Yoshii Gallery is pleased to present In Praise of Shadows by Hiroshi Sugimoto. The exhibition features 7 lithographs by the artist, shown in New York for the first time. These lithographs were inspired when Sugimoto installed a single candle which cast a shadow on a wall in a dark room. Sugimoto’s decision to use the print making technique of lithographs emphasizes the layering light of the candle through the layering techniques used in lithography. This exhibition is interested in the nature of photography as a record of the passing of time by the action of light, in this case, the candle.