Like a Zen master, Japanese photographer Yamamoto Masao approaches his work with an "active passiveness." He is active in his observations of Nature, but passive in his understanding that he is an inextricable part of Nature itself.

Living in the forest, he photographically "harvests" what he calls "treasures breathing quietly in nature." For Yamamoto, the act of making a photograph is like picking up a rock on the beach and holding the universe in your hands. His seventh exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery is titled, Tori, the Japanese word for bird. He states, "As a small boy in the countryside in Japan, I enjoyed looking up at the sky.

From my classroom window, I gazed at the windblown clouds, and was mesmerized by airborne creatures such as birds, butterflies and winged bugs. What do we see in birds? I keep looking for the answers while departing on yet another journey."