大阪に生まれる。女子美術大学洋画専攻卒業。1986年に渡米。1993年よりニューヨーク市立ハンター・カレッジで写真、スクール・オブ・ビジュアルアーツ大学院でコンピューターアートを学ぶ。2001年9月に「Uptown Bound」シリーズを発表。以来、ニューヨークで定期的に作品を発表し、創作活動を続けている。

Masayo Nishimura is a native of Osaka, Japan. She moved to the US in 1986. In 1993, she began her study of photography at Hunter College, City University of New York, where she discovered her interest in New York City subway stations. In 1999, she started working on a series of color photographs engaging the light and shadows created by subway architecture. This work, Uptown Bound, was first exhibited in September 2001 in New York City. While working with photography, she also created an animation film, a subway love story titled Dream. In 2000, Dream was screened at the Museum of Modern Art as an official selection of the "New Directors/New Films Festival.” Since 2008, she has often returned to her native Japan and captured everyday scenes in the Tokyo subways and streets. These works were first exhibited in New York City in 2011 in Recollections: From New York to Tokyo. In 2012, she traveled to the northern Pacific coast of Japan and documented the aftermath of tsunami-hit towns. This work, The New Horizon - Scenes in northern Japan nearly two years after the disaster, was exhibited in 2014. She also documented the many faces of her hometown - Senri New Town, an aging "model city" located just north of Osaka City. This work, My old 'New Town' – Recollections Vol.3, was exhibited in 2016. Currently, she lives and works in New York City.