Masumi Hayashi (photographer)

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Masumi Hayashi

Born September 3, 1945
Rivers, Arizona
Died August 17, 2006
Cleveland, Ohio
Nationality United States
Alma mater Florida State University
UCLA
Known for Being a photographer and artist

Masumi Hayashi (September 3, 1945 - August 17, 2006) was an American photographer and artist who taught art at Cleveland State University, in Cleveland, Ohio, for 24 years. She won a Cleveland Arts Prize, three Ohio Arts Council awards, a Fulbright fellowship; awards from National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest, and Florida Arts Council; as well as a 1997 Civil Liberties Educational Fund research grant.

Hayashi's works are represented in numerous public collections, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House in Rochester, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and the Ludwig Art Museum in Koblenz, Germany.

[edit] Biography

Masumi Hayashi was born in 1945 in the Gila River War Relocation Camp in Rivers, Arizona, one of the United States government's War Relocation Authority camps, where Japanese-Americans were placed in internment during the World War II Era. The Gila River camp was on Indian reservation land.

Hayashi grew up in Watts (an area in Los Angeles, California) and graduated from Jordan High School. As an adolescent, she worked at her parents’ store, Village Market, on Compton Avenue. She attended UCLA and later went on to attend Florida State University in Tallahassee, where she earned a Bachelor's degree in 1975 and Master of Fine Arts degree in 1977.

Hayashi joined the faculty of Cleveland State University as Assistant Professor of Photography in 1982, and became a full professor in 1996. During her tenure at CSU, she received numerous awards, including an Arts Midwest, NEA fellowship in 1987, a Civil Liberties Educational Fund research fellowship in 1997, a Fulbright Grant in 2003, and Individual Artist Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council on three different occasions. She was awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize for Visual Arts in 1994.

Masumi Hayashi is perhaps best known for creating striking panoramic photocollages, using smaller color photographs (typically 4-by-6-inch prints) like tiles in a mosaic. Many of these large panoramic pieces involve more than one hundred smaller photographic prints; the rotational scope of the assembled collage can be 360 degrees or even 540 degrees. Much of her work explores socially uncomfortable spaces, including prisons, relocation camps, and Superfund cleanup sites.

Later in her career, her artwork reflected a deep interest in sacred sites, and she travelled several times to India and other places in Asia, to photograph spiritually significant spaces.

Masumi Hayashi was killed by gunshot in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 17, 2006, apparently by a neighbor.

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