名称: Earliest Human Relatives《最早的人类亲属》
类别: photo/照片
日期: 1994
Size: 23x33cm 
备注：作品右下角有杉本博司签名 


Earliest Human Relatives (1994) is one of the representative works in Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto’s “Dioramas” series. This body of work takes natural history museums as its subject, using long-exposure photography to give static animal and human evolution models a striking sense of life, blurring the boundary between reality and representation. In this photograph, two hominid figures stand in a simulated primordial landscape, their gestures natural, as if wandering through an ancient forest. Through photography, Sugimoto collapses millions of years of evolutionary time into a single frozen moment, prompting viewers to reflect on the origins of human civilization.  

《最早的人类亲属》（Earliest Human Relatives, 1994）是日本著名摄影师杉本博司（Hiroshi Sugimoto）“自然历史重现”（Dioramas）系列中的代表作品之一。该系列以自然历史博物馆为拍摄对象，通过长时间曝光，使静态的动物或人类演化模型在照片中呈现出栩栩如生的质感，模糊了现实与再现的界限。在这幅作品中，两位类人猿模型置身于模拟的原始景观中，姿态自然，仿佛正漫步于远古丛林。杉本博司以摄影手段让它们跨越数百万年的时间，凝固于人类演化的起点，唤起观者对文明起源的思考。 

To achieve this effect, Sugimoto employed a large-format camera with exposures lasting up to twenty minutes. He considers the camera a “time fossilizer,” a device that crystallizes the invisible flow of time. In doing so, he revives static museum specimens with a lifelike presence. Confronted with these images, viewers often forget the models’ artificiality and instead immerse themselves in a profound sense of temporal reality.   

Earliest Human Relatives is held in the collections of major institutions, including the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in the United States and the Sainsbury Centre in the United Kingdom. It has also been featured in large-scale retrospectives such as “Time Machine”, where it was exhibited alongside works from the Seascapes and Theaters series, offering a comprehensive overview of Sugimoto’s fifty-year artistic journey.  

为了达到这种效果，杉本博司使用大画幅相机，进行长达二十分钟的曝光。他将相机视为“时间的化石机”，通过摄影凝结不可见的时间流动，使静止的标本重获生命感。观者在面对这些影像时，往往会忘记其“模型”的属性，而沉浸在一种超越时间的真实感之中。  

《最早的人类亲属》目前被多家重要艺术机构收藏，包括: 美国沃斯堡现代艺术博物馆（Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth）与英国桑斯伯里中心（Sainsbury Centre）。比勒费尔德美术馆（Kunsthalle Bielefeld，德国），根据法语维基百科资料，比勒费尔德美术馆的公共收藏中也包括了杉本博司的《Earliest Human Relatives》（1994）。此外，这件作品也曾出现在大型回顾展“Time Machine”中，与《海景》（Seascapes）、《剧院》（Theaters）等系列并列展出，全面展示了杉本博司五十年的艺术探索。

这件作品不仅是人类进化史的艺术再现，更是一种哲学式的凝视。杉本博司借由摄影，提醒我们历史与记忆并非线性流动，而是可被凝固、反思与重构的时空。>>返回>>