2009 Hiroshi Sugimoto – Lightning Fields 225

Sugimoto directly recorded high-voltage discharges, revealing the trace of raw electrical energy on a non-conductive surface.

In Lightning Fields 225 (2009), Hiroshi Sugimoto removed the camera entirely, allowing electricity itself to create the image. Using a large-format sheet of photographic film, he channelled 400’000 volts of electrical discharge across the surface to expose the image. The resulting photograph is a complex web of branching filaments — a literal trace of energy.

This process transforms photography into a natural event: electricity shaping its own luminous geometry. At once an act of scientific experimentation and artistic creation, Lightning Fields visualises energy in its raw state — a precise recording of a physical phenomenon and a meditation on the beauty of its form. Here, the photographic medium becomes both subject and tool, redefining exposure as an elemental interaction. The image is not captured but generated — an imprint of pure energy made visible through light.

Credit: © Hiroshi Sugimoto, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Lisson Gallery
Author: Hiroshi Sugimoto
Title: Lightning Fields 225
Date: 2009
Archive: (no archival credit required, per correspondence)
Source: Courtesy of the artist, Fraenkel Gallery (San Francisco), and Lisson Gallery
Description: Gelatin silver print, size variable
Available Information: Part of Sugimoto’s Lightning Fields series, created by discharging high-voltage electricity directly onto photographic paper. The process records the physical trace of electrical energy without the use of a camera, producing intricate, branching patterns of light that reveal the natural geometry of electrical phenomena.

Additional credits (left to right): Image 1: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Lightning Fields 119, 2009. Gelatin silver print. © Hiroshi Sugimoto, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Lisson Gallery. Image 2: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Self-Portrait, 2019. Gelatin silver print. © Hiroshi Sugimoto, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Lisson Gallery.

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