Born 1960 in Sapporo, Sugawara graduated from the Department of Photography at Osaka University of the Arts. He studied under Osamu Hayasaki. Since moving to France, Sugawara began to fully devote himself to his career as a photographer and presented his works in a variety of solo exhibitions. The 1998 movie “Blue Fish,” where Sugawara was responsible for the camera work, was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival. His photographs were included into the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in 2004. Together with Robert Frank, Sugawara participated in the exhibition “Made in the Shade,” shown in 2005 at Pace MacGill Gallery in New York.

Sugawara continued to expand his artistic range with his contribution to the animated movie “Mushishi,” where he received credit as opening director. More recently, he explored ways to capture light with wet plate photography, thus combining traditional and contemporary techniques of photography. The San Diego Museum of Art included his works into their collection in 2010. His solo exhibitions “The Bright Forest” (Trunk Gallery, Seoul), and “Tsugaru” (Leica Ginza Photo Salon, Tokyo) were held in 2011.