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Rangefinder Magazine
June 2004

Profile: Masami Mori by Harvey Goldstein
A Fusion of Ancient Japanese Art with 20th Century Photography

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Masami Mori was born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, in 1956 and grew up with photography almost as a second language. Influenced by his father, who was a journalist, Masami lived with strips of 35mm film hanging everywhere in the house. Photography was an everyday affair to Masami in his childhood.

Because photographs were indispensable to his father’s reporting, Masami learned to use a camera at a young age. He occasionally took his father’s expensive camera on outings to photograph his classmates, but photography was only a passing interest for him at that time. He did not really get started in photography until he was studying industrial chemistry at Nihon University in Tokyo. There he realized he was more interested in imagemaking than in chemistry, so he enrolled in the Tokyo College of Photography (now called Tokyo Polytechnic University).

Today, Masami is a commercial photographer based in Tokyo. His assignments include advertising campaigns, press ads, CD covers and television commercials. He continues to take and create portraits. He has also created a series of photographs of the noted Japanese Butoh dance.

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Masami is currently producing a collaborative series, which includes images of dancers and flowers. Masami states, “My flower studies are definitely influenced by traditional Japanese paintings, ink drawings and woodcut prints, but I have also been inspired by Irving Penn’s work with flowers, Herb Ritts’ nudes, Robert Mapplethorpe’s portraits and the works of Georgia O’Keefe.”

Masami has been photographing female nudes in Los Angeles for six years. He began photographing flowers more than 10 years ago. During this time, he has had five exhibitions in Japan at the Polaroid Gallery and the Kodak Photo Salon, both in Tokyo. Masami’s ambition is to exhibit in Europe or the United States, perhaps publishing a collection of flower images (with nudes or Japanese dancer images) in Europe or the United States.

“ I would far sooner be famous for photographing flowers than anything else. I regard it as my most important work. Shooting for yourself is very gratifying. You don’t need to go to meetings; there are no restrictions, no false formalities. All I have to do is buy the flowers. I find them so inspiring—simply contemplating their natural beauty is an important part of the process for me. Flowers are so ephemeral, their freshness is so short lived, but there is a strange beauty in their transition to decay, too.”

All of Masami’s images (flowers, nudes and Japanese dancers) are taken with natural light. His camera of choice is either an 8x10 (Toyo-View 810G) or a 4x5 (Toyo-View 45G), with either a 180mm Fujinon, 210 Super-Symmar HM or a 300mm Nikon lens. For his flower and nude studies, he uses Polaroid films (T-809, T-804, T-59, T-55) in several ways, which are all an important part of the creative process.

One of the techniques he uses to image transfer is to photograph with Polacolor 59 4x5 sheet film and transfer it to a Polacolor 809 positive (Polacolor 809 8x10 color sheet film, which will allow the image to transfer to papers of various materials). He also uses the cross-tone process, using the Polacolor 809 color negative film processed with the Polapan 804 black-and- white positive paper to make beautiful sepia photographs. He uses lith printing to make quality and beautifully toned black-and-white prints. With this process, he also can print beautiful, light, sepia images. [Editor’s note: Lith printing involves the use of a developer intended for high contrast lithographic film. When used this way, the developer is highly diluted and photographic paper is used instead of film. This combination produces a final print with deep blacks and browns and highlights ranging from a pale white through tan, dark red or blue.]

Masami advises the aspiring photographer to get interested in all things. It is important to see, hear and experience as much as possible: movies, theater, pictures, art museums, books and travel. One should have the capability to discern and to challenge the essence of whatever your interest may be.

Even after 20 years in the photographic industry, he still loves flowers, he still loves people and he still loves taking photographs of flowers and people. A creative work is like a hobby for Masami. His philosophy on life: “I love communicating with people through photography.”

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Following are Masami Mori’s explanations of his work:
(A) Black-and-white flower prints.
(B) Black-and-white Japanese Butoh dancer prints; photographed with 4x5 (Polapan 55 positive/negative film), lith printing.
(C) Black-and-white female nude prints; photographed with 6x7 (black-and-white positive/negative film), lith printing.
(D) Color flower photos; photographed with 4x5 color positive film (masking, filter work and double exposure) on a photograph of flowers using 4x5 color positive paper.
(E) Image Transfers; an image transfer to T-809 positive paper photographed with T-809 in natural light. The color tone is easily influenced by the light in the location where the image transfer is done and the duration of the processing time after the transfer. It is fun doing this work because of the possibilities.

Harvey Goldstein from Branford, Connecticut has been in the photographic industry for 30 years. He is a former studio owner and presently edits numerous association newsletters and magazines, as well as being a freelance writer.