Kohei Uemura (born 1998) is a Japanese photographer and nonfiction writer from Osaka. After graduating from Waseda University, he travelled and photographed in Japan and abroad before settling in Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off Canada’s west coast, where he lives alongside the Indigenous Haida people. In 2026, he won the twenty-fourth Kaiko Takeshi Nonfiction Award for “Shiso no Daichi: Hokuyo no Senjumin Haida to Ikiru,” an account of life with the Haida. Through experiences of salmon fishing, boatbuilding, learning the Haida language, and attending potlatch ceremonies, the work explores efforts to reclaim land and culture and the lasting wounds of colonialism. His self-published photobook “Tono Shuka” documents hop farming in Tono, Iwate, through monochrome photographs. His photography and writing begin with sharing everyday life and learning through direct participation.
