“The context of my work is always very important to me.”

The work of New York–based Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto transcends the spatial boundaries of a single art form. He is best known for his minimal monochrome photography shot with a large-format camera. These intensely detailed images depict subjects ranging from seascapes and movie theaters to natural history dioramas.

However, Sugimoto’s work is not confined to photographic expression. Architecture, art installations and theater direction all play a role in his four-decade-long meditation on the passage of time and interpretations of place. This is reflected in his recent work, Lost Human Genetic Archive. The antithesis of minimalism, the artwork charts the self-inflicted demise of humanity. It was first shown at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2014 and more recently at the Toky...