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It's pre-photography, a fossilization of time, Americans have done the Zen garden to death. I wanted to do something different.

Hiroshi Sugimoto

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Hiroshi Sugimoto
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: February 23
Photographer
Tōkyō
Sugimoto Hiroshi
Time
Garden
Photography
Americans
Death
Wanted
Done
Different
Something

More quotes by Hiroshi Sugimoto

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I came to California in 1970 and so many people were asking if I was a Buddhist or knew Zen theory, asking if I was enlightened already or not. So I said, Yes, I am enlightened, and then I studied quickly to catch up.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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I didn't want to be criticized for taking low-quality photographs, so I tried to reach the best, highest quality of photography and then to combine this with a conceptual art practice. But thinking back, that was the wrong decision [laughs]. Developing a low-quality aesthetic is a sign of serious fine art-I still see this.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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I don't know how many serious Christians exist here in America, but the Japanese, the younger generation is leaving the Buddhist religion mentality behind.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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People have been reading photography as a true document, at the same time they are now getting suspicious. I am basically an honest person, so I let the camera capture whatever it captures whether you believe it or not is up to you it’s not my responsibility, blame my camera, not me.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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[Takashi] Murakami, do you think he is spiritual? He is more like de-spiritualized. De-spiritualized might be the most contemporary aspect of the human mind.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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To me, as a visual artist, I don't want to get into the theory of Buddhism. There are many Buddhism theories and they fight each other, like Christians as well.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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To me photography functions as a fossilization of time.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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Art resides even in things with no artistic intentions.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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When I wake up I just make it happen. My dreams come true- that is the artistic practice.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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I feel that I'm in a very interesting position, where I'm standing back to look at this change, at this moment in history of human beings. If the end of the civilization comes before the end of my life, that's lucky! I want to witness how this big story of humans ends.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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The Seascapes are before human beings and after human beings. The Seascapes were there before our presence, and when our civilization is over, seascapes will still exist. Our presence is temporary. Civilization is only 5,000 to 6,000 years. The history of ours, the material history of consciousness, is rather short.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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[I'm concerned with] aesthetics and this idea of how the passage between life and death goes. I can visually present that by borrowing this Buddhist statue.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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The Buddhist concept is that it takes 48 days to get near this state [of death]. So it's a slow process, moving into, not a permanent death, but the world of the dead.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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Art always helps religion it became an inseparable phenomenon when human beings gained consciousness.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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If I already have a vision, my work is almost done. The rest is a technical problem.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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Population diminishing, even in Japan and Italy, the population is diminishing. When society can reach a sustainable place or gain comfortable income, then people tend to have fewer children. Poverty makes a chain reaction of having many children. So when society reaches some kind of level, then it will turn toward getting a smaller population.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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All over the planet, nature is being transformed into 'un-nature' at breakneck speed...My life is part of natural history. I long to know where that history came from and where it is going.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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I don't know whether the future or 2018 exists or not, but if it exists, I'm offering a show to a museum in Australia titled Time Reversed. Time is going backwards.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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I have a strong feeling about this quick movement and changing of society and populations growing - something scary.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
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I'm thinking about the end of civilization. We may not keep growing like we are now. There must be an end of civilization. That's what I did as a show at the Palais de Tokyo, the 33 scenarios of how this civilization ends.
Hiroshi Sugimoto