Mountainscape

In his delicate black-and-white photographs, Masao Yamamoto tries to capture the harmonious details of life that most of us miss. He gained initial renown for his multi-part installations consisting of tea-stained, torn, and creased prints that, through their evocation of antiquity, encourage reflection on memory and the passage of time. More recently, the painter-turned-photographer has presented larger, though still subtle, single-framed prints of depopulated Japanese nature scenes, as in the series “Kawa=Flow” and “Shizuka=Cleanse”. In describing his quietly beautiful work, Yamamoto explains that he feels “the presence of many ‘treasures’ breathing quietly in nature,” which he tries to capture “with both my eyes and my camera.” He calls this presence “Shizuka,” meaning cleansed, pure, clear, and untainted. Nude women elegantly floating amidst black backdrops are another frequent subject.

Gamagori City, Japan