Born 1931 in Fukuoka Prefecture, Narahara graduated from the Faculty of Law at Chuo University, then completed a master’s degree in Art History at Waseda University. Inspired by the avant-garde movements of that time, he joined the group Jitsuzaisha, founded by Masuo Ikeda and Ay-O, in 1955. While still enrolled as a student, he held the solo exhibition “Human Land” at Matsushima Gallery, which almost instantly brought him to broader attention. Following this initial success, he began to focus on humans living under extreme circumstances with the photo series Domains. In 1959, together with Shomei Tomatsu, Eikoh Hosoe, Kikuji Kawada, Akira Sato, and Akira Tanno, Narahara became one of the co-founders of the short-lived photographic cooperative Vivo (dissolved 1961).

Narahara then moved to Europe and documented his journey in the photo book Europe: Where Time has Stopped. He won the Geijutsu Sensho Prize of the Agency of Cultural Affairs and the Mainichi Art Prize in 1968, and the Annual Award of the Photographic Society of Japan in 1986. Notable publications in this time include Where Time has Vanished (1975) and Venice: Nightscapes (1986). In 1996, Narahara was awarded the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon. Retrospectives were held in 2002 at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris), and in 2004 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. In 2005, he won the Prize for Distinguished Contributions of the Photographic Society of Japan.
Passed away in 2020.