Natsumi call herself the “yowayowa camera woman” (yowayowa is a Japanese term meaning “weak” or “feeble”). There are over 30,000 hits everyday on her blog and she was so famous and called as “Levitation Girl”. She wondering around Tokyo with her heavy Canon EOS 5D Mk2 camera (it is really heavy to her), shooting and create her Levitation diary of self-portraits. With the function of 10 seconds self-timer of camera, Natsumi press the shutter button and run as quickly as she can to the position that she already framed, and jumping at the magic moment of shutter open. Maybe the “Levitation” works looks easy to be taken, but sometime it will take over 300 times to shoot at the same position for one perfect work. In the case of the distance over 10 seconds of running, she will ask her friend as the model for framing and exchange position while shooting. She also shoots as many times as she could to get the perfect works. With her unique aesthetics, Natsumi use the traditional concept of capturing moment by camera and the new digital technique that can repeat trying for perfection. She create the images with full of narrative and imagination. She was so famous in the internet world and already makes a tendency that people imitating a lot. There are already many special interview on introducing her works, such as the front page of Yahoo!U.S. and NEWS and lots of Japanese magazines and France magazine “Philosophie Magazine”.

When photographing from a distance or among crowds of people, artist Hisaji Hara assists with taking the pictures.

 Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Seigensha (February 19, 2014)
Language: English, Japanese
ISBN-10: 4861523516
ISBN-13: 978-4861523519
Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 0.7 x 7.5 inches

Artwork and Information

Natsumi Hayashi