The Tokyo-born Sugimoto currently lives and works between New York and Tokyo.

After receiving a degree in Economics in Japan, Sugimoto went to the United States where he received a BFA from the Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, in 1972. In 1974 he settled in New York and began dealing in Japanese antiquities.

In the late 1970s, Sugimoto began three concurrent series, Dioramas, Theaters and Seascapes, using his large format camera and black and white film. Despite a seemingly diverse variety in subject matter, Sugimoto has stated repeatedly that time is his primary subject. In Dioramas, the first of his series, Sugimoto photographed dioramas in Natural History Museums, often scenes of primordial nature painted my Works Project Administration artists' in the 1930s.

In his Theater series, Sugimoto depicted the interiors of grand old movie houses. To create an effect of luminous empty space in the middle of ornate architectural details, Sugimoto would train his lens on an open movie screen while a movie was playing, using a long exposure time. The artist explains this effect using a Zen metaphor: a void is a consequence of fullness.

In his Seascapes series, Sugimoto took stark, subtle photographs of the sea and the sky with horizon lines that bisect the frame. Sugimoto gathered his images, devoid of other details, from points around the world.

His first solo exhibition in Japan took place at the Minami Gallery, Tokyo, in 1977; in 1981 he had his first solo show in the United States at the Sonnabend Gallery, New York.

In the 1980s, Sugimoto's work was identified by a Guggenheim Fellowship (1980), a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1982), and the Mainichi Art Award (1988)

Sugimoto has continued to work in series, including the Hall of Thirty-Three Bays series depicting images from Sanjusangendo, a thirteenth-century Buddhist temple in Kyoto; a series of portraits of historical figures from wax museums; and an architecture series.

In 2001, Sugimoto was awarded the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography.