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Jackson Fine Art is pleased to announce a unique installation by renowned Japanese photographer Masao Yamamoto that is composed of elegant color and black and white images from his new Nakazora series. Nakazora, is translated as the space between the earth and the sky where birds and butterflies fly. This conceptual empty space is where Masao captures elements of beauty in nature conveyed in these tiny ephemeral images.
Masao Yamamoto was born in 1957 in Gamagori City of Aichi Prefecture, Japan with mountains and seashores surrounding him. As a child he captured beauty by collecting objects of nature. Originally trained as a painter, Masao now uses photography exclusively to arrest and manipulate time resulting in poetic images that evokes memories and nostalgia in the viewer. They are balanced and simplistic and, but occasionally they successfully push these formal elements to the edge. Unencumbered by traditional and conventional constraints, these small 3 X 5 in images are intentionally torn, frayed, stained, toned with tea, and painted in a conscious effort to look aged or antique. However contemporary, these aged prints subject matter is varied but forms a distinct and singular photographic vision. The series includes although not exclusively, natural landscapes, still-lives, and nudes.
In his installations, Masao explores how individual photographs are part of larger reality by grouping them together using different techniques of display. In his visual dialogue with the viewer, Masao uniquely arranges each by adhering them directly to the wall as well as juxtaposing them with groupings in frames. As individual prints, each image can stand strong alone in its simplicity yet as a whole; they seem to be inherently part of a universal visual language.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS: Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL The International Center of Photography, New York, NY Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX Philadelphia
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