Masao Yamamoto was born in 1957 in Gamagori City, Japan. He is a freelance photographer that is best known for creating small manipulated photographs that range between 3x5 inches or smaller. His photographs are very delicate, and one can't avoid the sense of intimacy that it they transmit. Yamamoto is very much inspired by the simple things in life. In a sense, he is inspired by the most common things that happen in the environment that we don't take time to examine, or think about. In many occasions, he photographs in a snapshot manner using a 35mm camera and printing in Silver-Gelatin. The outcome of his photographs is achieved by simple manipulations that help age the photograph. He handles them for periods of time, paints on them, hand tones them, and in many occasions dyes them with tea.
"As you can see, my photos are small and seem old. In fact, I work so that they’re like that. I could wait 30 years before using them, but that’s impossible. So, I must age them. I take them out with me on walks, I rub them with my hands, this is what gives me my desired expression. This is called the process of forgetting or the production of memory. Because in old photos the memories are completely manipulated and it’s this that interests me and this is the reason that I do this work"
He is very much inspired by memories and story telling. He presents his work in an installation manner, where there is no set chronology, but an organic arrangement of objects. Each an one of them can become the start of a different story.
The qualities that strike me the most is his success in creating an intimate, quite, and spiritual environment. Not only for the viewer, but for the artist himself. The photographs have a nostalgic sense of engagement between the photographer and the place.
(images were found on Google images: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&um=1&q=masao+yamamoto+photography&sa=N&start=0&ndsp=18)
