Osamu James Nakagawa

Osamu James Nakagawa
Nakagawa at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, 2015
Born1962
New York City, New York, United States
EducationUniversity of Houston, University of St. Thomas
OccupationPhotographer
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship, Higashikawa Prize, American Photography Institute, Japan Foundation
WebsiteOsamu James Nakagawa

Osamu James Nakagawa (born 1962) is a Japanese-American photographer.[1][2] He is known for multiple, cross-cultural series exploring geopolitical landscape, family, memory and personal identity, including his own transnational experience.[3][4][5][6] He initially gained notice as an early digital photographer, however his work has ranged between digital color and black-and-white imagery, and computer-manipulated collage, traditional "straight" photography and large photographic installation.[7][8][9] Writers such as curator Anne Wilkes Tucker describe his work as challenging, layered and in a poetic vein, rather than documentary or narrative in nature.[10]

Nakagawa has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and awards from the cities of Higashikawa and Sagamihara in Japan, among others.[5][8] He has exhibited internationally at venues including the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[11] Tokyo Photographic Art Museum,[12][13] Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,[14] and Sakima Art Museum in Japan.[15] His work belongs to the public collections of those museums and others, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography and George Eastman Museum.[16][17][18][19] Nakagawa is a professor of photography at Indiana University and lives and works in Bloomington, Indiana.[20][21]

  1. ^ Cookman, Claude. "Kai: Following the Cycle of Life in Osamu James Nakagawa’s family photographs," Exposure, Society for Photographic Education, Spring 2017. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  2. ^ Kraft, Coralie. "Kai: Following the Cycle of Life," Lens Culture, 2017. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  3. ^ Loke, Margaret. "Exploring Alienation Through Windows, Bare Trees and Murky Enigmas," The New York Times, February 16, 2001, p. E40. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  4. ^ Morgan, Robert C. "Miyako Ishiuchi and Osamu James Nakagawa," ARTnews, June, 2003.
  5. ^ a b Ksander, Yael. "Focus on a Tragic Landscape: Guggenheim Fellow Osamu James Nakagawa," Indiana Public Media, May 5, 2009. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  6. ^ Teicher, Jordan G. "Japan’s Mysterious and Beautiful Caves," Slate, May 18, 2014. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  7. ^ Dam, Julie K.L. and Emily Michell, Stacy Perman. "Virtual Light Shines in the Darkroom, Metamorphoses: Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City," Time Magazine International edition, September 26, 1994, p. 62.
  8. ^ a b Kusumoto, Aki. "Osamu James Nakagawa interview," Photography Annual 2011, Nippon Camera, Japan.
  9. ^ The Eye of Photography. "Osamu James Nakagawa’s touching family diary," April 23, 2018. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  10. ^ Tucker, Anne Wilkes. "Osamu James Nakagawa," Contact Sheet: The Light Work Annual 2003, Syracuse, NY: Light Work, 2003. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  11. ^ Cattan, Dani. "Osamu James Nakagawa: The Banta Ciffs, at the MET," En Foco, October 24, 2012.
  12. ^ Hiraki, Osamu. "The 1st Tokyo International Photo-Biennale," Asahi Camera, June 1995.
  13. ^ Tokyo Art Beat. "From the Cave, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum", 2019. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  14. ^ Klaasmeyer, Kelly. "War/Photography," Houston Press, January 9, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  15. ^ Lens Culture. About Osamu James Nakagawa. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  16. ^ The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Okinawa 001, 2008, Osamu James Nakagawa, Collection. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  17. ^ Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Osamu James Nakagawa, People. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  18. ^ Museum of Contemporary Photography. End of the Day, from the "Ma" series, Objects. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  19. ^ George Eastman Museum. Gas Mask, Osamu James Nakagawa, Objects. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  20. ^ John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Osamu James Nakagawa, Fellows. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  21. ^ Indiana University. Osamu James Nakagawa, Faculty. Retrieved July 30, 2021.