Image forming apparatus and process cartridge

An image forming method comprising:

• a charging operation that charges a surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor that includes a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer disposed on the conductive substrate, and does not contain lubricant particles in a region of 30% from a surface of an outermost surface layer with respect to a film thickness of the outermost surface layer or comprises 5% by mass or less of the lubricant particles with respect to an entirety of the region;
• an electrostatic latent image forming operation that forms an electrostatic latent image on the charged surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor;
• a developing operation that develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor with a developer containing an electrostatic charge image developing toner to form a toner image;
• a transfer operation that transfers the toner image to a surface of a recording medium;
• and
• a cleaning operation that has a cleaning blade and cleans the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor by bringing the cleaning blade into contact with the surface after the toner image is transferred by the transfer operation,
• wherein a dynamic friction coefficient in a contact portion between the electrophotographic photoreceptor and the cleaning blade is 0.2 or greater and 0.6 or less.