Hiroshi SugimotoPhotogenic Drawing

In this series, Hiroshi Sugimoto investigates the scientific origins of photography. In 1834, William Henry Fox Talbot produced some of the very first photograms on sensitized paper, setting a variety of botanical specimens directly on the paper’s surface and exposing the paper to sunlight. These experiments eventually yielded rudimentary paper negatives made from a camera obscura. Talbot, however, never created positive prints from many of his negatives. Alongside many prominent museums, Sugimoto is also a collector of Talbot’s early negatives, and by making photographs of these fragile, delicate objects, Sugimoto aims to at last share these very early images with the world.