Famed photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto presents new colorful photographs of refracted sunlight alongside the massive prism that was used in their creation.

Hiroshi Sugimoto?s latest series of photographs is on view at Lisson Gallery in New York City in an exhibition titled Optical Allusion. The famed photographer captures blurry abstract images of refracted daylight that, displayed alongside the real prism that was used in their creation, invites tangible experience with light and time. It?s an exhibition well worth visiting in real life.
Exhibition view of ?Optical Allusion? at Lisson Gallery, New York, May 2 ? August 2, 2024
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Opticks 580, 2023
Each of the 18 photographs here, collectively titled Opticks, measure nearly 4 feet square and reveal a blurry gradation of color that seems caught between the physical and the ethereal ? sometimes implying a foggy seascape or a night sky from another world. Each image is the result of a custom prism that refracts daylight into a full spectrum onto Sugimoto?s wall, often altered or expanded with the use of a mirror. That colorful spectrum is first photographed with a Polaroid camera (Sugimoto was gifted the ?last batch? of Japanese Polaroid film in 2009) before being scanned and enlarged into these unique C-prints, retaining their square format. The result is an object that feels both infinitely deep and more film-like than photo-like. Exhibition view of ?Optical Allusion? at Lisson Gallery, New York, May 2 ? ...