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Which art books, prints and posters are available by and about this artist? Here is a sample of items of interest to a typical collector:
Masao Gozu (b. 1946, Nagano, Japan) is a Japanese-born photographer and sculptor based in New York City. His work revolves around seriality, architectural framing, time, and the human presence within urban environments, most notably downtown Manhattan.
Gozu moved to New York in 1971 to study at the Brooklyn Museum Art School after completing studies at the Toyo Institute of Art and Design in Tokyo. Settling in the Lower East Side and Bowery areas, he began documenting the changing landscape and residents of his immediate surroundings.
Windows (1971–1990), his most acclaimed photographic series captures residents, primarily immigrants, peering out of tenement apartment windows. Combining formal perspective correction with a humanist lens, he treated the window frame as both a stage and a reflective boundary.
In the mid-1980s, Gozu expanded his exploration of architectural framing into physical three-dimensional objects. He scavenged brick facades and window frames from demolished New York buildings, meticulously reconstructing them into monumental, free-standing sculptures that preserve the physical detritus and memory of vanishing urban spaces.
Gozu’s work earned major recognitions, including the 10th Ina Nobuo Award (1985) and the Special Jury Prize at Le Mois de la Photo in Paris (1990). His work is held in institutional collections including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, the Museum of the City of New York, and the Lowe Art Museum.
In New York (Feb. 1971-Nov. 1980) is a 1981 self-published photobook by Japanese-born photographer Masao Gozu.
It is the first volume in a three-part series documenting New York City, featuring photographs captured throughout the 1970s. The project relies on a strict, self-imposed compositional framework, photographing windows to systematically explore their material and spatial qualities. Gozu was so focused on these structural elements that he later translated these visual studies into large-scale sculptural window representations.
The work merges the taxonomic, formalist rigor of August Sander and Ken Ohara with the street-level warmth of Helen Levitt.