Katsuhito Nakazato
Life and career. Nakazato was born in Taki, Mie Prefecture, Japan. When young he enjoyed painting, and he joined a painting club in Hosei University (Tokyo), from which he graduated in Geography. It was only when he was 25 that he first had any interest in photography, thinking that a SLR camera his grandmother had bought for him really ought to get some use, and enrolling in a photography class for the public that happened to be taught by Kazuo Kitai, whose teaching he found enormously stimulating. The classes were held once a week for two months, and  Nakazato took seriously Kitai's casual answer that yes, he might be able to make it as a photographer. Nakazato would continue to meet Kitai once a month for two years thereafter. Throughout this time Nakazato was supporting himself via as series of jobs that he disliked, and at 28 he determined that although the prospects of a good income looked bleak, he would indeed be a professional photographer as there was nothing other than photography that he wanted to do. He started with little skill or confidence (as he recalls) in editorial work for magazines, but gradually got into  his stride and work picked up. Nakazato's first photobook, published in 1991, is a portrayal of life on the "man-made wilderness" on the edges of Tokyo Bay, during its rapid changes before the construction of Makuhari Messe. The portraits (as well as the use of monochrome) make this book unusual among Nakazato's works, but it is highly regarded. His subsequent work has been in colour, with one entire book (as well as major contributions to others) of photographs of sheds, books of photographs of dusk and night scenes in and near Tokyo done in collaboration with the  writer Jun Nakano, and more. In 2001, Nakazato was invited to participate in a crafts event in Ichikawa (Chiba), and, as a renowned photographer of sheds, quickly agreed to construct a shed, a job for which he had no experience. With the help of an architecture student from Waseda University, he was successful in what turned out to be the first of a series of sheds. Nakazato won the Society of Photography Award in 2003 for his book "De Chirico's Shadow" and the Photo City Sagamihara newcomer's award in 2005 for his book "Roji: Wandering Back Alleys." Nakazato  is a professor at Tokyo Zokei University. He also teaches various workshops elsewhere.