Kosuke Okahara


Kosuke Okahara is a Japanese photographer who covers social issues in the tradition of humanistic documentary photography.
Okahara is a winner of PDNs 30, Joop Swart Masterclass of World Press Photo, Eugene Smith Fellowship, Getty Images Grant, and Pierre & Alexandra Boulat Award.

Biography

Okahara was born in Tokyo, Japan. After a period of training and competing in freestyle skiing at the international level, he studied education at Waseda University. Upon obtaining his degree, he embarked on a career as a photographer, alternating between news- reporting and long-term personal projects. His initial trip led him to Sudan, Burma, China, as well as his first trip to Colombia.
In 2004, he began "Ibasyo" a long-term photographic essay on adolescent self-harm in Japan. Japanese society generally ignores this phenomenon as it considers it to be shameful. Okahara took on the pluralistic roles of photographer, close friend, witness, and social worker. One of his series that he photographed in Colombia has been published and exhibited as a part of "100 years of Leica photography".
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.
Okahara was a member of Agence VU' between 2007 and 2010.

Books

Solo exhibitions