Hiroshi Sugimoro – Seascape series 1980 – 2002
To give the bigger picture of the enormity of mental health, showing large expanses of water was always going to be an important step to take.
It was at this point that Hiroshi Sugimoto was suggested to me, particularly his seascape series.
Sugimoto’s work reminds me in some ways of the artist Mark Rothko. Which I also fin interesting to me as Rothko was also an individual who is said to have suffered with mental health issues, and in 1970 he was found dead in his studio having committed suicide.
Many of Sugimoto’s images seem to have a cloudless sky, and this was one of the elements that I knew was not going to work for my project. the clouds are important to my images as to me they express the feelings, stormy skies and water express the struggles an individual can feel when struggling with depression and other mental health illnesses, so this is a point where my work differs greatly from Sugimoto’s
One thing that I do take from Sugimoto’s work is a sense of calm.I’, not sure if this is due to all of the images being black and white. Through my studies it has become well known the impact that colour can have on mental health, which leaves me with the decision of whether I should keep my images with colour or convert to black and white for more impact.
Another are that really interested me was his use of the fog in his images, many people that I have spoken to describe depression as a fog that descends upon you, and is perhaps one of the images that I should consider trying to capture because of this metaphor.
Sugimoto travelled the world to capture the images of ancient seas. This is not something that I would look to replicate, I will be remaining on the North East Coast. I find that when depression and anxiety set in there is an urge to stay within the confines of the familiar, where there is a clear route back home to safety – or possibly the prison of a person’s emotions, it will not be a worldly view like Sugimoto’s but it will be an almost tunnelled approach aiming to survive and sometimes struggling to exist!
References:
Kirsty Logan Photography 