CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/27/2019

A new, expanded edition of Hiroshi Sugimoto's classic 'Seascapes'

Featured image, "Bay of Sagami, Kaikoh" (2011, neg. #529), is reproduced from Damiani and MW Editions' new, expanded edition of the artist's classic and beloved series of deadpan black-and-white photographs of the world's oceans, seas, bays, lakes and straits. "In ancient Indian philosophy there is the concept of leela, which posits that human life is nothing more than a meaningless game played by the gods," Japanese sociologist Munesuke Mita writes in his catalog essay. "Sugimoto struck me as someone who loved the leela side of life. I believe that his reductionist passion was qualitatively different from the other aspiring contemporary avant-garde artists in New York at that time. His imagination is closer to that of people in primitive civilizations, people who can look at the stars randomly dotting the heavens and tell themselves, 'That's a horse,' 'There's a horseman,' 'That's a musical instrument,' 'Those are the gods.'"