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Polar Bear

1976
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Polar Bear
  • Artist: Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japanese, born Tokyo, 1948)
  • Date: 1976
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: 42.1 x 55.3 cm (16 9/16 x 21 3/4 in.)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Charina Foundation Inc. Gift, 1984
  • Object Number: 1984.1059
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Hiroshi Sugimoto
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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