About
Sandy Sugawara, a Sansei or third generation Japanese American, is a journalist and a photographer. Her cross-cultural roots and her many years as a journalist inform her photography, which often explores memory and the ephemerality of life. Her major projects are often based on deep research and she enjoys collaborating with other artists.
Her parents lived on farms in California, until they were imprisoned in Amache incarceration camp (Granada, CO.) during World War 2 because of their race. After being released from Amache, they moved to Cleveland and Cincinnati.
Sandy was born in Cincinnati, graduated from Wellesley College, worked as a staff assistant to Norman Mineta, when he was a member of Congress, and then as an editor, reporter, and foreign correspondent for The Washington Post. She currently lives in Maryland and holds a senior management position in a global broadcasting organization.
Her photographs are held in public and private collections, and her work has appeared in several juried exhibitions around the country. She co-authored, with Catiana Garcia-Kilroy, a photo book about the Japanese American incarceration camps called “Show Me The Way To Go To Home.” The book was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has won design and production awards.
Book, Exhibitions and Reviews
BOOK NEWS: “Show Me The Way To Go To Home” (Radius Books)
Southwest Book Design and Production Award, David Chickey & Mat Patalano, Designers; Nick Larsen, Editor
Podcast: The Candid Frame by Ibarionex Perello
Review: PhotoBook Journal by Wayne Swanson
Review: Things I Notice: “My Thoughts on an Incredible Book, ‘Show Me the Way to Go To Home’.”
“Show Me The Way To Go To Home,” acquired by Metropolitan Museum of Art for its library.
Pacific Citizen review, Sept. 8, 2023
Wellesley College presentation, Oct. 18, 2023
Great Falls Library presentation, Oct. 11, 2023
North Bethesda Camera Club presentation, Sept. 13, 2023
Juried Exhibitions/ Awards
19th Julia Margaret Cameron Award; FotoNostrum Gallery, Barcelona, April-May, 2023 - Winner - Architecture and Interiors (non-professional section). [Dawn]
19th Julia Margaret Cameron Award, Honorable Mention - Landscape and Seascape + Nature [Falling Leaves, Night, Stillness, Tree]
Griffin Museum of Photography: 28th Annual Members Online Exhibition [Into the Woods]
F-Stop Magazine - Issue: Open Theme 2021 [A Delicate Puzzle, Walking The Dog]
Montgomery County Public Arts Trust purchased three photos for display in public buildings (Md) 2018. [Bus Stop, Laundry Day, County Fair]
George Washington University’s Luther W. Brady Art Gallery’s show -“REFLECT: Photography, Looking Forward, Looking Backward” (DC) 2017 [Laundry Day]
“open theme | unbound” exhibition, juried by Crista Dix, Griffin Museum Associate Director, A Smith Gallery (TX) 2021 [Into The Woods, In the Woods, Opening Up … Slowly]
“In Between Moments” exhibition, juried by Sarah Weiss, Praxis Gallery (MN), 2021 [Laundry Day — Honorable Mention]
“After Dark” exhibition, juried by Cory Fitzgerald, Praxis Gallery (MN), 2021 [Carousel and Into The Woods]
“The Poetry of the Ordinary” exhibition, juried by Douglas Beasley, PhotoPlace Gallery (Vt.) 2021 [Cooking Dinner]
"Trees: Life in the Slow Lane” exhibition, juried by Kat Kiernan, Editor-in-Chief of "Don’t Take Pictures" and Director of Panopticon Gallery, PhotoPlace Gallery (Vt) 2019 [Stormy Weather]
"Let There Be Light (And Shadow)" exhibition, juried by Harvey Stein, Umbrella Arts Gallery (NYC) 2018 [Bus Stop]
Two-person show, "Places We Find," at Glen Echo Photoworks Gallery (Md) 2018.
Review: The Washington Post: “In the galleries: Extraordinary images from ordinary settings in ‘Places We Find’”
Review: Washington City Paper: “Critics’ Pick: Places We Find”
Director's Award in the Santa Fe Workshop's Annual Photo Contest (NM) 2016. [County Fair]