Screen idol: Hiroshi Sugimoto’s serene series of theatres is worth looking up to
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter

It takes a rare sort of curiosity to devote a lifetime to a single project. But it was this ‘sense of vocation’ that spurred Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto to capture theatres around the world for nearly four decades.
Sugimoto began work on his Theaters series when he was just 28 years old. Forty years later, he finds himself revisiting his earlier photographs – and by extension, his younger self – for a new book celebrating this body of work, published by Damiani Editore in collaboration with Matsumoto Editions.
Using a large-format camera and no light source other than the projection of the running movie, Sugimoto captures an entire film in one starkly serene still. Each full-length feature film renders as a brilliantly luminous white box, gently coaxing out the architectural details of each space in the artist's characteristically masterful use of monochrome.
UA Rivoli, New York, 1977
‘I wanted to photograph a movie, with all its appearance of life and motion, in order to stop it again,’ the artist explains in the book’s foreword. ‘My dream was to capture 170,000 photographs on a single frame of film. The image I had inside my brain was of a gleaming white screen inside a dark movie theatre.’
The book, too, is worthy in its own right as a fascinating and simply beautiful catalogue of theatre architecture. Sugimoto leads with classic American movie palaces built in the 1920s and 30s. Ornate and stoically majestic, they embody the pinnacle of Hollywood's Golden Age. The 1990s saw the artist cruising through drive-ins; IMAX screens dominate later, strangely alien and imposing in their scale.
More recently, Sugimoto has circled back to the film industry’s romantic prime, capturing historic theatres in Europe as well as turning his lens on abandoned venues. He imagines the works to ‘be the embodiment or manifestation of something awe-inspiring and divine’. Certainly, the artist’s heavenly interpretation of these architectural spaces is worth looking up to.
Goshen, Indiana, 1980
Everett Square Theater, Boston, 2015
INFORMATION
Theaters, by Hiroshi Sugimoto, $60, published by Damiani Editore/Matsumoto Editions. For more information, visit Hiroshi Sugimoto’s website (opens in new tab)
-
Buckhorn Sculpture Park: inside the art paradise dreamt up by collectors Sherry and Joel Mallin
As legendary art collectors Sherry and Joel Mallin prepare to sell their upstate New York home – and the star-studded collection occupying Buckhorn, its onsite sculpture park – we go behind the scenes of this art treasure trove, and the extraordinary life, work and spirit of the Mallins
By MZ Adnan • Published
-
Extreme Cashmere brings its colourful knits to the slopes of St Moritz
Amsterdam-based brand Extreme Cashmere – known for its extensive all-cashmere wardrobe – arrives in the historic Swiss ski resort with a special pop-up and restaurant takeover
By Jack Moss • Published
-
Silver from X-rays recycled as sustainable jewellery by The Royal Mint
The 886 by The Royal Mint jewellery collection gives recycled X-ray films a new purpose
By Hannah Silver • Published
-
Best contemporary art books: a guide for 2023
From maverick memoirs to topical tomes, turn over a new leaf with the Wallpaper* arts desk’s pick of new releases and all-time favourite art books
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Hiroshi Sugimoto: ‘The deeper I explore Shinto and Buddhist art, the more it reveals the shallowness of contemporary art’
‘Hiroshi Sugimoto – The Descent of the Kasuga Spirit’, at the Kasuga-Taisha shrine in Nara, Japan, sees the acclaimed photographer draw on Japan’s spiritual past and present
By Minako Norimatsu • Published
-
Behind the scenes of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining: new book charts the making of a horror icon
Published in February 2023 by Taschen, a new collector's book will go behind the scenes of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, charting the unseen making of a film that defined the horror genre
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
The best photography books for your coffee table
Flick through, mull over and deep-dive into the best photography books on the market, from our shelves to you this Christmas 2022
By Sophie Gladstone • Published
-
New photo book chronicles the messy, magical mundanity of new motherhood
Sorry I Gave Birth I Disappeared But Now I’m Back by photographer Andi Galdi Vinko explores new motherhood in all its messy, beautiful reality
By Hannah Silver • Last updated
-
Brad Walls’ aerial view transforms pools into artwork
Aerial photographer Brad Walls provides a crisp conclusion to the summer months with new book Pools From Above – you’ll want to dive right in
By Martha Elliott • Last updated
-
K-style: understanding the rise of Korea’s creative golden age
Spanning music, fashion, design and food, a new book, Make Break Remix explores the global rise and rise of Korean culture
By SuhYoung Yun • Last updated
-
‘Punk ballerina’ Karole Armitage debuts a genre-bending show in New York
Karole Armitage, the choreographer behind Madonna’s Vogue video and Marc Jacobs’ A/W 2021 show, debuts A Pandemic Notebook at New York Live Arts
By Mary Cleary • Last updated