Born in Osaka, Japan, Masayo Nishimura moved to the United States in 1986 and to New York in 1993 to study photography at Hunter College. She was immediately fascinated by the underground interiors of the New York City subway system: the wide, open spaces, the metal columns between roof and floor, and the almost sacred play of light and shadow. In 1999, she began photographing in subway stations on the Upper West Side, first in black and white and then in color in 2000. Her book "Uptown Bound" brings together both series, shot in a New York that no longer exists.
“I began studying photography in 1993 at Hunter College in New York City. From the beginning, I was attracted to the lights and shadows created by the subway stations, in which the roofs of cars and tracks are bathed in sunlight from the street level, forming a unique shape of shadows. They looked serene and beautiful and often reminded me of Medieval religious paintings. I always marveled at the effects produced by this everyday environment.”
― from Masayo Nishimura’s afterword
