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Lot Essay
Hiroshi Sugimoto entame la série Theaters, dont font partie les Drive-In il y a plus de quarante ans. Plus que saisir la nostalgie d’un lieu devenu obsolète, l’artiste souhaite capturer l’essence même du temps qui passe à l’aide du cinéma, seul medium capable de capturer le mouvement, et dont l’étymologie du nom provient du grec ancien kínêma « mouvement ». Le photographe choisit des cinémas américains d’avant-guerre ou d’anciens drive-in, vestiges de la culture américaine et du rêve Hollywoodien. Dans Simi Valley Drive-In, le spectateur est plongé avec nostalgie dans l’imaginaire d’une projection, celle-ci ayant pourtant bien existé puisque Sugimoto, pour réaliser ce tirage, vient régler le temps de pose de son appareil sur la durée complète du film. Dans la noirceur de la nuit, des perspectives et des lignes dirigent notre regard vers un carré de lumière blanche qui jaillit au centre de l’œuvre ; un cumul d’images qui finissent par s’annuler, créant une atmosphère irréelle. L’écran blanc apparait alors comme la métaphore de la mémoire collective.
Hiroshi Sugimoto began the Theaters series, to which the Drive-In images belong, over forty years ago. More than just capturing the nostalgia of a now-obsolete setting, the artist sought to capture the very essence of time passing through film, the only medium able to capture movement, it’s etymology stemming from the ancient Greek word kínêma, meaning “movement”. The photographer chooses pre-war American movie theatres and old drive-ins, the vestiges of American culture and the Hollywood dream. In Simi Valley Drive-In, the spectator takes a nostalgic plunge into an imaginary screening, but one which must have taken place, since Sugimoto opened the shutter of the camera for the entire duration of the film to execute this picture. In the darkness of the night, the perspectives and lines direct our eyes to a square of white light that bursts from the centre of the scene: an accumulation of images that, in the end, cancel themselves out, creating an surreal atmosphere, the white screen appearing as a metaphor for collective memory.
Hiroshi Sugimoto began the Theaters series, to which the Drive-In images belong, over forty years ago. More than just capturing the nostalgia of a now-obsolete setting, the artist sought to capture the very essence of time passing through film, the only medium able to capture movement, it’s etymology stemming from the ancient Greek word kínêma, meaning “movement”. The photographer chooses pre-war American movie theatres and old drive-ins, the vestiges of American culture and the Hollywood dream. In Simi Valley Drive-In, the spectator takes a nostalgic plunge into an imaginary screening, but one which must have taken place, since Sugimoto opened the shutter of the camera for the entire duration of the film to execute this picture. In the darkness of the night, the perspectives and lines direct our eyes to a square of white light that bursts from the centre of the scene: an accumulation of images that, in the end, cancel themselves out, creating an surreal atmosphere, the white screen appearing as a metaphor for collective memory.