I first encountered Yamamoto Masao’s work as an undergraduate student. I felt an immediate resonance with his photographs, but it was only after I started creating my own photo books that I began truly looking closely at the work he had created. What I find most evocative and meaningful about his work is not just the composition of the images but the way in which they interact with each other, not just the images themselves but the spaces between them that open up a vast realm of possibility that allow for ambiguity. The photographs transform almost into the syllables of a haiku, the contemplative space between them mirroring the minimal nature of haikus, which, despite being the shortest poems in the world, communicate aspects and experiences of the world with great depth, profundity and intimacy.
