Kosuke Okahara
Kosuke Okahara is a Japanese photographer who covers social issues in the tradition of humanistic documentary photography.
Personal life
Okahara was born in Tokyo and studied education at Waseda University before starting his career as a photographer.Work
In 2004, he began "Ibasyo" a long-term photographic essay on adolescent self-harm in Japan. The project received the W. Eugene Smith Fellowship in Humanistic Photography in 2010. He subsequently worked on stories in Japan and elsewhere and published the book Fukushima Fragments on the aftermath of the 2011 disaster.Since the late 2010s, Okahara’s practice has included hand-made photobooks and materially oriented presentations. Works from his series Vanishing Existence were presented at the Musée Cernuschi, Paris.
Other topics he has photographed are the Arab Spring, the chaos on the Russian periphery, and migrants around Calais in 2008. Since the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, he documents the region devastated by the disaster with a particular attention given to the signs of time. This latter work is the subject of a book, Fukushima Fragments.
In 2017–2018, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich staged the exhibition SHOWCASE – Artists’ books from the collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek; BSB’s magazine report on the opening explicitly mentions Okahara by name in connection with the presentation.
Books
Contact #1 -Any given day-. Backyard Project, 2013.Vanishing Existence. Backyard Project, 2013.Ibasyo Book Journey. Handependent, 2014.Almost Paradise. Only Photography, 2014.Fukushima Fragments. France: Martinière, 2015..Ibasyo. Japan: Kousakusha, 2018..blue affair. Japan: THE BACKYARD, 2020Awards
- 2008: Overseas Training Grant for Emerging Artist, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japanese Government
- 2008: Special Mention, Prix Kodak
- 2009: Photo District News PDN's 30
- 2009: Sony World Photography Awards
- 2009: World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass
- 2010: Fellowship, W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Grant
- 2012: Finalist, European Publishers Award
- 2012: Getty Images Grants for Editorial Photography, Perpignan
- 2013: Festival Photoreporter en Baie de Saint-Brieuc Grant
- 2014: Pierre & Alexandra Boulat Award, Perpignan
- 2017 · Saint-Brieuc Festival Grant
- 2021 · Jury's Special Mention, 20th Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival
- 2021 · Best Contemporary Experimental Short, 16th Sapporo International Short Film Festival
- 2022 · Regional Prize - Asia, Open format category, World Press Photo