ARTISTS

Keita Sugiura is a photo artist who was born in the city of Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture in 1980.
After graduating from high school, Sugiura went on to college with a view to becoming a teacher, but his encounter there with the Provoke movement of photographic expression, whose members once included Takuma Nakahira and Daido Moriyama, prompted him to produce works himself, which he is still doing.
Sugiura is particularly fond of taking photographs in Okayama, where he was born and bred, and continues with activities on the theme of the connectivity between people and nature. He currently focuses on the hills with planted forests in the city of Niimi, and his output reflects an interest in and concern about the weird configurations of nature made by human beings. Among his major awards are the 2nd Okayama Prefecture Emerging Artist Development "Mr. I Award" Grand Prize (Okayama, 2009), and the Fukutake Cultural Encouragement Award (Okayama, 2010) from the Fukutake Education and Culture Foundation.