Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japanese, b. 1948)
EIFFEL TOWER-GUSTAVE EIFFEL, 2000-2001
Black and white photograph
Edition 1/5
SUG-940
71 3/4 x 60 inches, framed

This black and white photograph, which hangs in the Salon, is titled, appropriately enough, “Eiffel Tower-Gustave Eiffel” and is part of Sugimoto’s famous Architecture Series. This is the second Sugimoto photograph that resides in the Tru collection, the first, “State Theatre, Sydney,” hangs in the private dining room.

Born in Tokyo, Hiroshi Sugimoto studied photography at Los Angeles’s Art Center College of Design before moving to New York in the 1970s. The Architecture series was started in 1997. It includes photographs of some of the most landmark architectural structures of the 20th century, ranging from the Eiffel Tower, the Barcelona Pavilion, and the Empire State Building to buildings by Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, and Frank Lloyd Wright, among others in Europe, North America, and Asia. Shot distinctly out of focus and from different angles, the buildings are shown isolated from their urban context, resembling models or toys thus rendering them dreamlike and uninhabited. In the photographs, the emblematic buildings appear to be intangible structures as the viewer takes on the role of the sole voyeur.