Brian Y. Sato

Brian Y. Sato is a professional photographer from Honolulu, Hawai‘i. A graduate of the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Sato has had his work featured in numerous exhibitions—including the Artists of Hawaii at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, CROSSING: France/Hawaii at the Mona Bismark Museum in Paris France, and Tokyo Photographic Culture Center in Tokyo, Japan. His work is also part of the collections at the Hawai‘i State Foundation on the Culture and the Arts and the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

He passed away in January 2020.

Updated February 2020

Stories from This Author

Photographing the Nisei of Hawaii

Feb. 6, 2009 • Brian Y. Sato

A disappointing search for photographic portraits of Hawaii Issei at a university library led me to the realization that the rapidly aging Nisei generation in Hawaii would likewise become “faceless” to future generations unless a photographic documentation was undertaken immediately. In hindsight, it was indeed fortunate that at the time I initiated this project I did not have any notion as to how long it would take to complete. It began in 2002, now six years and six islands later, …