![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030yhsz)
You may recognize this image as the cover of the
new U2 album that came out last week. (I like U2 quite a bit, but this post is not about U2.) When I saw it, my first feeling was a sense of recognition, of familiar. Friday night, I mentioned this feeling aloud to N &
icajoleu, and I told them that it reminded me of an
exhibit I'd seen several times in January, a small room at the Sackler Museum of photographs by Sugimoto from his ongoing series of seascapes. (N, who'd seen the exhibit once, agreed.) I had been utterly fascinated by those seascapes (which violate a photography "rule" by placing the line of the horizon exactly in the middle of the image) - they were taken all over the world and were only identified by the location and the date, and they required the viewer to stand near and study them. From a distance they could appear merely as two halves of shades of grey, of dark and light, but when you stop for a while and look, the subtlety of each seascape emerges: the texture of the water, the quality of the light, the clarity, the mist. I think I'd gone into that tiny room ten times over several visits to the Sackler and each time I'd taken some time to let those images soak into me. I was mesmerized.
icajoleu wondered if maybe Sugimoto had taken the cover photo of the new U2 album, so I checked the liner notes...and of course, he had. Which inspired this post, because I decided to share my love for his work, which I first saw in a remarkable 2006 exhibit entitled "History of History" (which I posted about
here). I really love his work.
Below the cut are a collection of seascapes by Sugimoto interspersed with a few non-seascape images. When I've been able to find photo location & date, I've included it below the image.
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/00303fpe)
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/00304g5p)
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/00305qs4)
Aegean Sea, Pilion
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030662t)
Atlantic Ocean, Martha's Vineyard
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030794r/s640x480)
Bass Strait, Table Cape, 1997
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/00308h8k)
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/00309z1p)
Black Sea, Ozuluce 1991
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030ax7a/s640x480)
Boden Sea, Uttwil 1993
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030bda2)
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030ckd4/s640x480)
Irish Sea. Isle of Man
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030drrb/s640x480)
Kattegat, Kullaberg, 1996
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030e17g/s640x480)
Lake Superior. Cascade River.1995
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030ftdc/s640x480)
Mediterranean Sea, La Ciotat, 1989
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030g32y)
North Atlantic Ocean
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030h2w9/s640x480)
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030kteg/s640x480)
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030pqwf/s640x480)
Sea of Japan, Rebun Island, 1996
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030q58t)
Ionian Seas Antacesarea 1990
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030r5z2/s640x480)
Tyrrenian Sea
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030stxq/s640x480)
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030td8w/s640x480)
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030w7e6)
Tasman Sea, Ngarupupu.1990
![](http://pics.livejournal.com/winterspel/pic/0030x66g)
For more Sugimoto images, you can see
here and
here.
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