"Sea of Japan, Oki IV"

gelatin siver print

signed, titled, dated and numbered on verso

Water and air. So very commonplace are these substances, they hardly attract attention―and yet they vouchsafe our very existence. The beginnings of life  are shrouded in myth: Let there water and air. Living phenomena spontaneously generated from water and air in the presence of light, though that  could just as easily suggest random coincidence as a Deity. Let's just say that t here happened to be a planet with water and air in our solar system, and moreover at precisely the right distance from the sun for the temperatures required to coax forth life. While hardly inconceivable that at least one such planet should exist in the vast reaches of universe, we search in vain for another similar example. Mystery of mysteries, water and air are right there before us in the sea. Every time I view the sea, I feel a calming sense of security, as if visiting my ancestral home; I embark on a voyage of seeing. 
(Hiroshi Sugimoto)

Sea of Japan Oki IV is taken of the Sea of Japan, a sea we do not necessarily think we must visit. When people think of traveling to tourist destinations, the image to photographically capture is often a well publicized landmark such as the Eiffel Tower of Paris, the Big Ben of London, Tiananmen Square of Beijing and Mount Fuji of Japan. Sugimoto moves away from standard associations to landmarks and countries but photographs in a documentary style, seeking to capture the Sea of Japan in the most natural state. It is befitting that no landmarks are in sight as all oceans are interconnected, its names and borders are all imposed by mankind. There is no land in sight on the horizon line in any of these three images; only the ocean scene, and us, the viewer. Sugimoto's photography takes us back to a moment before names were given to bodies of water and gives us free reign to create an undeviating connection with the sea.
(Christies, 2008)