Kei Orihara

is a Japanese photographer whose work has portrayed the United States and who has created photobooks for children.

Life and career Orihara was born in 1948 in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. She had studied at the Faculty of Letters of Chuo University (Tokyo), and became keen on photography via a photography club there. After graduation, she worked for some time in publishing before setting out in 1977 as a freelance photographer, concentrating on magazine work, From 1979 to 1981 she lived in New York City, where she became close friends with a model named Jana; photographs of Jana's everyday life were exhibited in Japan in 1982, turned into a feature within the Japanese edition of Playboy, and into a book (Jana: The New York Girl) published in 1984.

In 1984 Orihara was noted for her success in interior portraits with natural and ambient light; she avoided flash.

Orihara turned to townscapes, photographing the port cities of Kobe, Kita-Kyūshū and Hakodate, and the rooftop water towers of New York City (especially those of the traditional, barrel-like construction); the latter appeared both for adults interested in photography and as a photobook for children.

From 2004 until 2010, Orihara lived in Athens, Georgia; she then moved to New York. From July 2011 until March 2016, she ran a photoblog of scenes in and near Sunnyside, Queens.

Exhibitions Soul South. 1977. Gogo no jōkyaku . 1984. Water Towers. Konica Plaza, Tokyo, November 2002. Nyūyōku: Kyūsuitō no aru fūkei / Water Towers New York. Echigawamachi Bintemari no kan (Echigawa, Shiga), October–November 2003. Water Towers New York. Kyōmachi Gallery Yamada (Kyoto), January–February 2004.

Collections Eleven photographs by Orihara of the Jana series and seven of the Gogo no jōkyaku (, afternoon passengers) series are in the collection of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

Books Books by Orihara Jana: The New York girl . Tokyo: Shueisha, 1983. . Photobook, with essays, about a girl in New York, Atlanta, and Half Moon Bay. Tai: Mana to midori no taichi . Sekai no kodomo-tachi, 24. Tokyo: Kaisei-sha, 1988. A book for younger readers about children in Thailand. Thailand. Children of the World. Text by David K. Wright and MaryLee Knowlton. Milwaukee: Stevens, 1988. . English version of the above. T'ai: Menam e hŭrŭnŭn Mana ŭi kkum. Segye ŭi ŏrini 24. Seoul: Ungjin Ch'ulp'an Chusik Hoesa, 1991. Korean version of the above. Foto rabu / Photo Love. Tokyo: Gentōsha, 1999. . Book of essays about a life and career in photography. Me ni shōgai no aru ko to issho ni . Baria-furī no hon, 1. Text by Tsuneyuki Takeuchi . Tokyo: Kaisei-sha, 2000. . Book for younger readers about blind people. Shōgai no aru hito e no borantia katsudō . Baria-furī no hon, 9. Text by Toshiyuki Takizawa . Tokyo: Kaisei-sha, 2000. . Book for younger readers about volunteer work for the disabled. "Shōgai"-tte nan darō? . Baria-furī no hon, 10. Text by Masako Fujita and Eishi Yukumi ; photographs by Kei Orihara and others. Tokyo: Kaisei-sha, 2000. . Book for younger readers about disabilities. Okujō no tongari bōshi / Water Tanks in New York. September 2002 issue of the magazine Gekkan Takusan no fushigi . Tokyo: Fukuinkan Shoten, 2002. Reissued within the series Takusan no fushigi kessakushū. Tokyo: Fukuinkan Shoten, 2008. . Photographs and text by Orihara. For younger readers. About the rooftop water towers of New York City.

Other books with work by Orihara Joel Sackett, ed. Ten on Tokyo: An Exhibition of Leading Japanese Photographers. Los Angeles: Perpetua Press, 1988.