Hiroshi Sugimoto: Color of Shadow


In today's world of Instagram madness, it can be hard to find a photograph that makes use of color in a unique, yet familiar way. Artist and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto doesn't seem to have a problem with color photography, marrying both simplicity and beauty in his work, "Color of Shadow".


Hiroshi Sugimoto has already been featured here before for his stark yet moving black-and-white images of Seascapes. This time, he turns his lens towards the light of the Sun, capturing the different colors produced by the different angles of sunlight.


Surprisingly, this is Sugimoto's first foray into color photography, having worked almost exclusively with black-and-white images. His pictures, however, don't betray any hint of unfamiliarity, looking instead like the works of a seasoned master.

In order to capture the light paintings, Sugimoto placed a crystal prism in the center of the room. Sunlight is then filtered into the glass piece, splitting the Sun's "shadow" as it were into different spectrums of light, and painting a blank wall with color. The photographer then used a Polaroid camera to capture the resulting "color shadows".


This project is actually a collaboration with the fashion house Hermès which will use the different color patterns for its limited edition silk scarves.

The commercialization of the photographer's artworks shouldn't distract from its value however as the light painting are akin to the painted masterpieces of Mark Rothko, only in Sugimoto's case, it's nature that provides the light and colors; all the photographer is doing is adjusting the variables a bit to capture the Sun's own light paintings.


This is Hiroshi Sugimoto's website. For his previously featured works, check out his Seascapes. His published artworks include Hiroshi Sugimoto, Hiroshi Sugimoto: Architecture and Sugimoto: Portraits.


Comments

  1. I almost swore that the second image was the German flag. ha. I'm losing my mind.

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  2. Are these really photos taking with a camera? Oh~, that's amazing! Really creative amazing work! I sometimes take pictures of the sun setting just because the colours are so pretty, but I've never thought of this!

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  3. I like the way he achieved the pictures!

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  4. It's a lot more impressive knowing that those colors.. are nature based. Just woah.

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  5. lmao jay, this is the weakest post ever! hahaha i could have viewed this in ms paint. good job though.

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  6. I like pictures like this where a seemly simple picture has far more subtler craftsmanship behind it.

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  7. Interesting blog! It is nice post and i found some interesting information on this blog. Keep it up Photographs and pictures of sun

    ReplyDelete

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