Masumi Hayashi

Masumi Hayashi was a Japanese American photographer known for her panoramic collages capturing typically abandoned or isolated landscapes.

Throughout her career, Hayashi used panoramic collages to capture various landscapes across the United States. She focused primarily on abandoned and dilapidated areas of important historical significance, such as abandoned prisons (1987-1996), EPA superfund sites (1989-1993), and other post-industrial landscapes (1986-1991). Although the majority of Hayashi’s work does not feature humans, the presence of humanity pervades throughout her work. Most of the landscapes she captures focus on nature recovering from human intervention. However, Hayashi noted that the beauty of her photographs belies the dangerous reality of the areas; despite their idyllic façade, the subjects of her photographs are still prisons and wastelands.

The unsettling beauty of Hayashi’s work is emphasized as a result of the medium she utilized. Her use of collages creates a timeless quality to her work; rather than capturing a landscape in a single moment in time, Hayashi breaks the landscape apart and separates it from any one specific moment. In the most extreme examples, Hayashi includes older photos and documents in her collages to offer context for the piece within itself. Rather than merely creating hauntingly beautiful landscapes, Hayashi encourages viewers to reflect on the history of a location. (See https://case.edu/ech/articles/h/hayashi-masumi for more details.)

In the exhibition Tainted Prospects: Photographers and the Compromised Environment. Castellani Art Museum, Niagara University, June 23-September 22, 1991. (Ken Baird, Barbara Bosworth, Edward Burtynsky, James D. Colby, Robert Dawson, Peter Goin, David T. Hanson, Masumi Hayashi, Richard C. Kleinberg, Mark Klett, Stuart D. Klipper, Lisa Lewenz), Masumi Hayashi showed works from her Ohio EPA Superfund Sites and Love Canal, 1990-91