Kazumi Sakurai: Photography as Lifelong Companion

Japanese-born photographer Kazumi Sakurai, now based in Kauai, Hawaii, after ten years in New York, reflects on a career shaped by movement, memory, and emotional attentiveness. Her father bought a Nikon FM camera when she was born, an object she still uses and considers her most meaningful piece. She began receiving awards in Japan in her early twenties, but had already declared her aspiration to be a photographer in her kindergarten graduation album. A formative memory was seeing a Robert Capa exhibition as a child, which revealed photography's capacity for consequence and witness. Sakurai resists a fixed style, allowing her visual language to evolve naturally. She is currently interested in color, selecting photographs made between 2000 and 2025 under that theme. She has stepped away from portrait photography as a primary focus to devote more energy to her own practice, though she remains interested in transforming her portrait work. She is participating in several artist residencies, currently at Joya in Spain, and is working toward publishing a photobook. Her influences are drawn from lived experience—people, places, and emotional states—rather than famous artists. She has lived in Japan, New York, Kauai, and spent time in Spain through residencies, each location contributing to her sensitivity to atmosphere and subtle presence.