Hattori was born 1955 in Sapporo (Hokkaido). He graduated in 1955 from the photography course at Nihon University. Impressed by the still lifes of the Czechoslovakian photographer Josef Sudek, Hattori began to focus on flowers and flower bins, but later shifted his attention to nudes. However, Hattori remained thematically consisted in the sense that he approached the human body as a still life, notwithstanding its inherent erotic potential.

His first solo exhibition was held in 1977 at the library of the art department of Nihon University, while he was still a student. Since the 1980s, Hattori exhibited regularly at Zeit-Foto Salon (Tokyo). From daguerreotypes to cibachrome, Hattori experimented with a variety of techniques stemming from throughout the history of photography. In this manner, his work condenses the present and the past, and questions the meaning of photography beyond its seeming adherence to immediacy.