Theaters (Special Edition) [2000]

Theaters (Special Edition) by Hiroshi Sugimoto [2000]

New in Publisher's Shrinkwrap. Hardcover in Slipcase; 224 pages
Sonnabend Sundell Editions
4.9 pounds;
615115969

This lavish book is the only complete collection of the renowned Theaters series, in which Hiroshi Sugimoto opens his shutter as a film begins and closes it as it concludes. "Different movies give different brightnesses. If it's an optimistic story, I usually end up with a bright screen; if it's a sad story, it's a dark screen. Occult movie? Very dark." Using a large format film camera he opens his aperture at the beginning of a movie and does not close it until the movie ends. What happens once the film is developed is sheer unexpected brilliance. In his most recent publication, Theaters, Sugimoto exhibits 130 of his photographs, spanning over the past four decades, displaying a vast array of movie theaters in all their luminance. (Erica McGrath Musée). In these photographs, which seem to condense not just all the light, but all the emotion contained in an entire film, theaters appear as divine and awe-inspiring as cathedrals. (Carey Dunne Hyperallergic). A theater isn't merely a place to screen films in, and Hiroshi Sugimoto knows it... By choosing to shoot an entire movie in one frame, he creates luminous images that call attention to the passage of time and the specificity of each location.