Polar Bear
Hiroshi Sugimoto Japanese
Not on view
When Sugimoto first arrived in New York in 1974, he was fascinated by the dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History. "I made a curious discovery," he later recalled. "The stuffed animals positioned before painted backdrops looked utterly fake, yet by taking a quick peek with one eye closed, all perspective vanished, and suddenly they looked very real. I'd found a way to see the world as a camera does. However fake the subject, once photographed, it's as good as real." Using careful framing, long exposure times, and a large view camera for clarity of detail, Sugimoto heightens the illusionism of the dioramas themselves, creating exquisite effigies of a natural world on the verge disappearing.
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