# Masumi Hayashi Foundation — Panoramic Photo Collage Artist

> Masumi Hayashi (1945–2006) was an American photographer known for panoramic photo collages of EPA Superfund sites, Japanese American internment camps, prisons, and sacred architecture. Her work is held by the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, Cleveland Museum of Art, and 40+ public collections. This site preserves her complete artistic legacy.

## Foundation Information

- **Organization**: Masumi Hayashi Foundation
- **Type**: 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN pending)
- **Website**: https://masumihayashi.com
- **Mission**: Preserve, exhibit, and educate about Masumi Hayashi's photographic legacy
- **Contact**: info@masumihayashi.com

## Artist Biography

Masumi Hayashi was born in 1945 in the Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona, where her Japanese American family was interned during World War II. She became a professor of photography at Cleveland State University and developed a distinctive panoramic photo collage technique — assembling hundreds of individual photographs into large-scale composite images that reveal environmental and social landscapes.

## Major Series

- [EPA Superfund Sites](https://masumihayashi.com/series/epa-superfund-sites): Documentation of America's most contaminated locations
- [Japanese American Internment Camps](https://masumihayashi.com/series/japanese-american-concentration-camps): Revisiting WWII camp sites decades later
- [American Prisons](https://masumihayashi.com/series/american-prisons): Panoramic views of correctional facilities
- [Sacred Architecture](https://masumihayashi.com/series/sacred-architecture): Churches, temples, and sacred spaces
- [Abandoned Spaces](https://masumihayashi.com/series/abandoned-spaces): Urban decay and industrial ruins
- [Cleveland Cityscapes](https://masumihayashi.com/series/cleveland-cityscapes): Her adopted city's landscapes

## Museum Collections

Works held by: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Library of Congress, Cleveland Museum of Art, Akron Art Museum, Canton Museum of Art, and 40+ additional institutions.

## Key Pages

- [About Masumi Hayashi](https://masumihayashi.com/about): Biography, artistic process, and legacy
- [Complete Gallery](https://masumihayashi.com/gallery): Browse all artwork series
- [Exhibitions](https://masumihayashi.com/exhibitions): Current and past exhibitions
- [SFMOMA 2025 Exhibition](https://masumihayashi.com/sfmoma-2025): "Worlds Within: Japanese American Art and Identity"
- [Glossary](https://masumihayashi.com/glossary): Art terminology and concepts
- [FAQ](https://masumihayashi.com/faq): Common questions about the artist and foundation
- [Donate](https://masumihayashi.com/donate): Support the foundation's preservation mission

## Artistic Technique

Masumi Hayashi's panoramic photo collages are created by photographing a scene from a single vantage point, rotating the camera in a grid pattern to capture overlapping images. These individual photographs are then hand-assembled into a composite that reveals spatial relationships invisible in single-frame photography. The technique produces large-scale works (typically 30x80 inches) with a distinctive multi-perspective quality.