I retraced the paths which photography's two inventors Daguerre and Talbot followed en route to their invention. For almost 180 years, it is photography that has determined how mankind sees its own history and perceives the world. Our collective history has been stopped, saved, and repeatedly scrutinized to the point of banalization. History, one might say, is not truly history until photography has thoroughly trivialized it. The day when mankind will realize its deep-seated desire to bring time to a stop is coming inexorably closer. Time exists only through the agency of human perception. Only when mankind vanishes from the earth can we truly claim to have halted time's progress. It is not long now.

Hiroshi Sugimoto Hiroshi Sugimoto was born in Tokyo in 1948, lives and works between New York and Tokyo. A multifaceted artist, developed his artistic practice through photography, often associated with sculptural objects, architecture and exhibition design experiments. Often addressed to the interrelationship between art, history, science and religion, his photographic research combines Eastern meditative ideas with elements of Western culture. In over thirty years of work, the artist has captivated audiences around the world with his impeccable black and white images. Inspired by Renaissance painting and early nineteenth century photography, through the use of a large format camera Sugimoto reaches an incredible fullness of tane, in a body of work reflecting his passion fordeta il and the fascination with the paradoxes of time and human perception.