Masao Yamamoto | Negative Space

“Between a full frame and a quiet thought.”

Masao Yamamoto 山本昌男, born in 1957, is a Japanese photographer whose work explores the resonance of absence and silence.

By intentionally omitting visual information, his small-scale, tactile prints transform emptiness from a compositional tool into a philosophical medium. For Yamamoto, the negative space within and around his images is a dynamic field for memory and imagination, making his photographs function like visual haiku.

"Bonsai #4026," 2019

The guiding philosophy of his practice is captured in the titles of his key series: A Box of Ku and Nakazora. "Ku" translates to "emptiness" or "sky," a central Zen concept. "Nakazora" is a more poetic Buddhist term meaning "the space between sky and earth," "empty air," or "an internal hollow." This state of suspension—neither here nor there—is where Yamamoto positions his work.

He cultivates this emptiness by paring his images down to their essence, often isolating a single, delicate subject—a stone, a leaf, a resting bird—against an expansive, textured ground. This unsparing use of negative space draws directly from the tradition of classical Chinese and Japanese painting, where vast blank areas emphasize the smallness of human existence within the immense scale of nature.

"Kawa=Flow #1692," 2021

Yamamoto further deepens this effect through his meticulous, physical process. He creates small, palm-sized prints that he tones, stains, and creases by hand. This manual aging gives each photograph the intimate, timeless quality of a found relic. The object itself, with its worn edges and tactile imperfections, extends the artwork's presence beyond the image. He often presents these prints in loose, scattered groupings, where the spaces in between the prints are as important as the prints themselves, creating a silent, visual conversation.

"Nakazora Installation F-173," 2023

Living in the forested mountains of Yamanashi, Yamamoto sees his role as "nature’s messenger."

His work reflects a humble worldview where humans are just a small part of a vast, silent whole. The negative space in his images embodies this perspective: it is an ancient, tranquil pond of existence. And his photographs capture a ripple on its surface—a momentary gaze, the sound of water—before it dissolves back into calm. 

"Kawa=Flow #1660" 

"Kawa=Flow #1558" 

It is a world filled with information presented through the art of subtraction.

We see the “emptiness” he creates as an open vessel: a space for contemplation that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant.

"Kawa=Flow #1533"