Inaugural Exhibition
HIROSHI SUGIMOTO: NATURE OF LIGHT
October 26, 2009 — March 16, 2010
Photogenic Drawing—Believed to be Mlle. Amélina Petit, Talbot Family Governess, circa1840–1841
2008 Toned gelatin-silver print
© Hiroshi Sugimoto/Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi
Lightning Fields 144
2009 Gelatin silver print
© Hiroshi Sugimoto/Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi
IZU PHOTO MUSEUM is pleased to present HIROSHI SUGIMOTO: NATURE OF LIGHT as its inaugural exhibition opening in October 2009. Internationally renowned for his photographic works, Hiroshi Sugimoto has recently expanded his activities to include architectural projects. This exhibition features his new work and will be held in the first architectural space that the artist has also designed.

The exhibition begins with a group of photographs created in homage to William Henry Fox Talbot, a pioneer of photography. Titled "Photogenic Drawing," these photographs were printed from paper negatives produced by Talbot 170 years ago. Sugimoto has effectively played variations on the original scores provided by Talbot's negatives, transferring to a different medium images that would otherwise disappear and be lost to obscurity.

To create "Lightning Fields," Sugimoto ran electric current directly over the film and printed the results. This series is also related to Talbot since it recalls the experiments that he carried out—and eventually discontinued—with electrical discharge in his work as a scientist. The title of the exhibition, HIROSHI SUGIMOTO: NATURE OF LIGHT, resonates with Talbot's The Pencil of Nature, the first book to be illustrated with photographs, recalling the original means by which photography portraits were made. We hope you will enjoy this requiem to silver nitrate photography created by a contemporary artist who has long been involved in making photographs about photographs.

This exhibition includes eleven works of "Photogenic Drawing" and a pair of six-paneled screens entitled Lightning Fields Composed 011.
Hiroshi Sugimoto

Born in Tokyo in 1948. Has lived and worked in New York since 1974. Recent major solo exhibitions include Hiroshi Sugimoto: The End of Time (Mori Art Museum, 2005); HIROSHI SUGIMOTO (K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Musueum der Moderne Mönchsberg, and other venues in Europe, 2007); History of History (Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art and National Museum of Art, Osaka, 2008–2009). Major publications include Rekishi no Rekishi (History of History), Rikuyosha; Koke no musu made (Until Moss Grows), Shinchosha; Utsutsuna Zoh (Obscure Image). In 2008, Sugimoto established the New Material Research Laboratory to carry out architectural projects.

Exhibition Catalogue
HIROSHI SUGIMOTO: NATURE OF LIGHT published by IZU PHOTO MUSEUM / NOHARA. Bilingual (English and Japanese).