Hiroshi Sugimoto Completes Fifty-Year Diorama Photography Series with Final Shoot at AMNH
Hiroshi Sugimoto has completed his diorama photography project, a journey that started in 1974 when he moved to New York. His final photographs were taken in the fall of 2025 at the American Museum of Natural History, marking his debut with color film. Sugimoto discovered that closing one eye enhanced the realism of the dioramas. Back in 1975, he used an 8-by-10-inch camera, with exposure times of about twenty minutes. His first images included vultures and a polar bear. He reflected, “My life as an artist began...bringing the bear back to life on film.” After fifty years, he felt a sense of relief at finishing this series, which documents a fading art form. This summary appeared in Aperture No. 264, titled “Stop Time.”
Key facts
- Hiroshi Sugimoto began photographing museum dioramas in 1974, shortly after moving to New York.
- His final photographs for the series were taken at the American Museum of Natural History in fall 2025.
- The final shoot used color film for the first time in the series.
- In 1975, Sugimoto used an 8-by-10-inch camera and secured museum permission by presenting himself as a tourist.
- His first two diorama photographs showed vultures with a zebra carcass and a polar bear over a seal.
- Carl Akeley, a taxidermist and conservationist, created dioramas to rally support for wildlife preservation.
- Stephen Quinn, who built and restored dioramas at the museum for nearly forty years, praised Sugimoto's work.
- The series is featured in Aperture No. 264, 'Stop Time,' guest edited by Sugimoto.
Entities
Artists
- Hiroshi Sugimoto
- Carl Akeley
- Stephen Quinn
Institutions
- American Museum of Natural History
- Aperture
- Fraenkel Gallery
- Gallery Koyanagi
- Lisson Gallery
- Odawara Art Foundation
- Singapore Art Museum
- Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden
- New Material Research Laboratory
- Enoura Observatory
- Winsing Art Place
- Hayward Gallery
- UCCA Center for Contemporary Art
- MCA Sydney
- The Shoto Museum of Art
- Kasugataisha Museum
- Himeji City Museum of Art
- Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art
- Tel Aviv Museum of Art
- Château de Versailles
- Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium
- Japan Society
- Château la Coste
- Phillips Collection
- Le Stanze del Vetro
- Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa
- Palais de Tokyo
- J. Paul Getty Museum
- Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art
- Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent
- National Arts Club
- Royal Photographic Society
- Isamu Noguchi Award
- Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
- Praemium Imperiale
- PHotoESPAÑA
- Hasselblad Foundation
- ICP
Locations
- New York
- United States
- Ethiopia
- Africa
- Long Island
- San Francisco
- Tokyo
- Japan
- London
- United Kingdom
- Chelsea
- Odawara
- Singapore
- Washington, D.C.
- Taipei
- Taiwan
- Beijing
- China
- Sydney
- Australia
- Nara
- Himeji
- Kyoto
- Tel Aviv
- Israel
- Versailles
- France
- Brussels
- Belgium
- Provence
- Venice
- Italy
- Paris
- Los Angeles
- Seoul
- South Korea
- Rocky Mountains