Unik byttehandel

U2s nye album, No Line on the Horizon, viser kun et bilde tatt av japanske fotografen Hiroshi Sugimoto. Bildet av Bodensee, fotografert i 1993, og en samtale mellom Sugimoto og Bono (vokalist i U2) ga inspirasjon til albumets tittelsang.

I fjor ba U2 om å få bruke bildet på coveret til albumet. Sugimotos betaling er at han får retten til å bruke tittelsangen som han vil i fremtiden.

Les om Sugimotos retrospektive utstilling.

Bildet av Bodensee er del av serien "Seascapes", som Sugimoto beskriver slik:

Water and air. So very commonplace are these substances, they hardly attract attention?and yet they vouchsafe our very existence.

The beginnings of life are shrouded in myth: Let there water and air. Living phenomena spontaneously generated from water and air in the presence of light, though that could just as easily suggest random coincidence as a Deity. Let's just say that there happened to be a planet with water and air in our solar system, and moreover at precisely the right distance from the sun for the temperatures required to coax forth life. While hardly inconceivable that at least one such planet should exist in the vast reaches of universe, we search in vain for another similar example.

Mystery of mysteries, water and air are right there before us in the sea. Every time I view the sea, I feel a calming sense of security, as if visiting my ancestral home; I embark on a voyage of seeing.