Kosuke Okahara
Leipzig, Germany
After competing in freestyle skiing at international level, he embarked on a career as a photographer, alternating between news reporting and long-term personal projects.
His initial forays led him to Sudan, Burma and China, as well as his first trip to Colombia, a project which he is only now at the point of conclusion.
In 2004, he began "Ibasyo" a long-term photographic essay on adolescent self-mutilation in Japan. He gradually took on the pluralistic roles that of a photographer, a close friend, a witness, and even a social worker. Bringing these sufferers out from the shadows of anonymity, "Ibasyo" breaks a major taboo in Japanese society and exemplifies the ethical and aesthetic approach of his work.
All of his work, deeply rooted in the tradition of humanistic photography, has met with the support from the most prestigious institutions. He is a winner of PDN's 30, Joop Swart Masterclass of WPP, Eugene Smith Fellowship, Getty Images Grants and Pierre & Alexandra Boulat Award.
Critical support when you take into account the impressive number of trips he has made for his projects, such as the multiple visits to Colombia since 2006 where he continues the investigation, with links to Mexico and the United States. Drugs, social violence, migrations add up to a photographic narrative which is poetic but same time play the roll of journalism.
Other current issues feed his photography: the Arab uprisings or the chaos on the Russian periphery are just two examples. One can also cite his work in Calais in 2008 on migrants issues.
Finally, since the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, he documents the region devastated with a particular attention given to the signs of time. Again, we see the marriage of precise facts and enigmatic images. What lingers is the feeling of frozen chaos and progressive abandonment. This work is now a book, "Fukushima Fragments" (La Martinière) in 2015.
2014 - Pierre & Alexandra Boulat Award, 2013 - Photoreporter, Saint-Brieuc Festival Grant, 2012 - Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography, 2012 - Finalist, European Publishers Award, 2010 - W.Eugene Smith Fellowship, 2009 - Joops Swart Masterclass, World Press Photo, 2009 - 2nd place, Sony World Photography Awards, 2009 - PDN 30's, 2008 - Special Mention, Prix Kodak, 2008 - Emerging Artists Grant, Government of Japan
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