Hiroshi Sugimoto Quotes

However fake the subject, once photographed, it's as good as real.

If I already have a vision, my work is almost done. The rest is a technical problem.

I try to never be satisfied; this way I will always be challenging my spirit.

To me photography functions as a fossilization of time.

Art resides even in things with no artistic intentions.

The 1,000 Buddha, to me, is almost like a contemporary art piece.

When I wake up I just make it happen. My dreams come true- that is the artistic practice.

Art is technique: a means by which to materialize the invisible realm of the mind.

Art always helps religion; it became an inseparable phenomenon when human beings gained consciousness.

[Takashi] Murakami, do you think he is spiritual? He is more like de-spiritualized. De-spiritualized might be the most contemporary aspect of the human mind.

I'm inviting the spirits into my photography. It's an act of God.

Art and religion have the same origin. Art first, or religion first? Maybe consciousness first! Consciousness always comes with religious feeling and artistic identification. It's the same origin.

I don't love the postmodern statement: "You shouldn't be spiritual if you are the artist."

It's pre-photography, a fossilization of time, Americans have done the Zen garden to death. I wanted to do something different.

I don't know how many serious Christians exist here in America, but the Japanese, the younger generation is leaving the Buddhist religion mentality behind.

Not any particular religion or school of religion, but being an artist, you have to be spiritual, in a way.

To me, as a visual artist, I don't want to get into the theory of Buddhism. There are many Buddhism theories and they fight each other, like Christians as well.

The Buddhist concept is that it takes 48 days to get near this state [of death]. So it's a slow process, moving into, not a permanent death, but the world of the dead.

All over the planet, nature is being transformed into 'un-nature' at breakneck speed...My life is part of natural history. I long to know where that history came from and where it is going.

I have a strong feeling about this quick movement and changing of society and populations growing - something scary.

Life is one passage and then you keep moving into another state.

Many people [still] believe that at the time of your death, 1,000 Buddhas show up and welcome you into the paradise state.

My art has gained some high value.

I don't know whether the future or 2018 exists or not, but if it exists, I'm offering a show to a museum in Australia titled "Time Reversed." Time is going backwards.

[I'm concerned with] aesthetics and this idea of how the passage between life and death goes. I can visually present that by borrowing this Buddhist statue.