AWARDS

Born in Nagasaki Prefecture in 1985. He studied forest science at the School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University and graduated in 2010. Rooted in his origins on a remote island in Nagasaki and through his experiences living in Japan and abroad, he takes as his subjects immigrants, the scenes and cultures they produce, the land and its memory, and faith, repeatedly exploring the regional history and personal memories. His practice encompasses the whole sequence – from exhibiting images shot on site, to the dialogues that arise between photographs and people, to sharing the works with other communities – and he treats this sequence as a series of expressions.

While working as an editor and journalist in Tokyo, he began taking photographs prompted by the 2011 earthquake disaster. He went freelance in 2014 and spent a year living in Brazil and elsewhere in South America. The landscapes he encountered along the Amazon River and simple Christian churches in Chile’s archipelago reminded him of his hometown and let him return to Japan. He then began journeys exploring Nagasaki’s coastal areas.

In 2020, he published the photobook Across the Sea with AKAAKA. He presented the solo exhibition Across the Sea at Nikon Salon Tokyo, which toured to eight venues nationwide through 2024, including Saikai City (Nagasaki), Nagasaki City, Goto Island (Nagasaki), Fukuoka, Osaka, Miyagi, Sapporo. He presented 14 solo exhibitions on Nagasaki’s seascapes, notably NAGASAKI SEASCAPES at Alt_Medium (Tokyo, 2021); Vernacular Churches in Nagasaki at EUREKA (Fukuoka, 2025), documenting local Catholic churches; and Memories of the Sea at Gallery Y (Ibaraki, 2022) and LIBRIS KOBACO (Fukuoka , 2024), which explores childhood memories.

He was awarded the 20^th Miki Jun Award for his exhibition Jashim Family (2018), the Japan Photographic Society Newcomer Award for Across the Sea (2022), and the 46^th Kodansha Honda Yasuharu Nonfiction Award in 2024 for Mikko nochi Sentaku (Stowaway, Then Laundry) – co-authored; photography and editing.

His photobook HOKKAIDO is published by AKAAKA in February 2026.

<Artist Statements>

The sound of waves. The scent of the tide. The sea always stretched out before me.

I was raised on Matsushima, a small remote island floating off the coast of Saikai City in Nagasaki Prefecture. Looking out over the western sea, the Gotō Islands can be seen in the distance, extending across the horizon. The seas of Nagasaki, with their intricate ria coastline, are home to around 1,500 islands—the largest number in Japan—including more than 70 inhabited ones. When you cross the sea to another island, you can see the shore you departed from, or yet another island beyond. Traveling farther, new islands and new landscapes come into view. The sea of Nagasaki is a world in which seeing and being seen are endlessly repeated.

I left my home island at the age of sixteen. I lived in Nagasaki City, Hokkaido, and Tokyo, and spent about three years in my twenties traveling abroad. Around the time I had spent half my life away from the island where I grew up, I felt a growing desire to learn more about my place of origin, and I began traveling the seas of Nagasaki with a camera. It was through this process that the body of work titled Across the Sea came into being.

The news that I had received the Hidano Kazuuemon Award came as a complete surprise. For someone like myself—based in Kyushu and continuing to produce and exhibit work primarily in regional areas—receiving such a prestigious award from Higashikawa, a town that likewise shines from the periphery, is an immense encouragement.

In 2015, I was given the opportunity by Higashikawa to attend a photography summer school in Latvia. The following summer, my first exhibition was held at the Red Brick Warehouse. It is deeply meaningful for me to return to this place of personal significance and participate in the photography festival again after ten years. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the people of Higashikawa, as well as to everyone in the many places who have supported me along the way.

TAGAWA Motonari