South Bay Drive-In, South Bay
1993
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 42.23 × 54.13 cm (16 5/8 × 21 5/16 in.) sheet: 47.63 × 54.29 cm (18 3/4 × 21 3/8 in.) mount: 50.17 × 63.5 cm (19 3/4 × 25 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg
Accession Number
2025.16.63
Art Historical Context
Hiroshi Sugimoto's *South Bay Drive-In, South Bay* (1993) is a captivating gelatin silver print from his renowned Drive-In Theaters series, which explores the fleeting magic of cinema through minimalist black-and-white photography. Captured at a Southern California drive-in, the image features a massive movie screen glowing luminously against a pitch-black night sky, its content reduced to an ethereal white light by Sugimoto's signature long-exposure technique. This Japanese artist, known for his conceptual works like Seascapes and Theaters, transforms everyday American landmarks into meditati...