Must See Photography Exhibit at the Hirshhorn (2 cents)

I had not been to the Hirshhorn in a while. I did not go looking for anything particular. I went down the escalator and saw that there was a video exhibit in a small room apparently now dedicated to video displays. This one was by a young man named Hiraki Sawa. This is not the must-see exhibit.

Hiraki Sawa makes short black and white films, silent, in houses, where unusual critters move about. I saw portions of two of the five or six they are showing seriatum. In one, there were shadow camels (and an occasional shadow elephant) moving all around the house. In the other, there were tiny passanger jets taking off and landing on tables, kitchen counters, and book cases. Too odd for me.

But upstairs, there is a very large photography exhibit by 57 year old Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. THIS EXHIBIT IS EXTRAORDINARY. And it is displayed perfectly, taking up over half of second floor of the gallery.

The photos are all black and white; they are all oversized; they have been taken over the past 30 years. Each room has a limited amount of photos of one kind. There is no room with photos from more than one series.

Here they are: photos of wildlife diaramas from museums, where the wildlife look more real than if they were real; photos of Henry VIII and his wives, also looking more real than real, except that they are photos taken at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London; photos of major architectural masterpieces, but fuzzy to get the idea, but not the actuality of buildings (in this case, therefore, less real than real); photos of seascapes, where the light and the clouds are the only variations; photos of the inside of movie theaters, where the shutter has been open for entire movies (that is, real as to subject, but unreal as to time); the same photo of a buddha, but multiplied into an intricate design; photos of shapes that are the materialization of complex (and identified) mathematical formulas; one photo of Emperor Hirohito.

You have to see thiese photos. They will be there through mid-May.