When We Return Home brings together contemporary landscape photographs with images from the artist's family archive. The project was recognized with the biennial International Prix Virginia Prize and the Aperture Foundation Creator Prize in 2024. In 2026, it was shortlisted for the Rencontres d'Arles LUMA Rencontres Dummy Book Award and the Athens Photo Festival Dummy Award; the project was also selected for exhibition at the Benaki Museum as part of the Athens Photo Festival Book Program (June–July 2026). Moving between past and present, the work considers how histories of displacement are carried within families and persist across generations. Through a restrained sequencing of images, meaning emerges gradually, tracing how memory, absence, and inheritance shape ideas of belonging and home.
A complete book edit is available upon request.
Artist’s grandmother, fourth from left, Spring Dance Recital, Buddhist Temple, Seattle, Washington, c.1930
Fabric of kimono worn by Grandmother in previous photo c.1930, preserved in cedar box and handed down to her granddaughter.
Right: Jack Sakai in the desert on pilgrimage back to the West Coast Left: National Archives photograph outside Poston Internment Camp
Sakai family in their fruit orchard in California, pre-WWII
Yeizo and Shige Sakai, artist’s great-grandparents with their children, including Kuneo Jack Sakai, California, c.1930’s
Artist’s Aunt and Uncle, in Easter best, post WWII. Ohio
National Archives image of military alert for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. December 7th 1941
Sakai family picnic, post WWII, Lakewood, Ohio
Grandfather fishing, Lake Erie Ohio 1950
Artist’s grandfather’s rejection of claim of loss against the United States Government, October 13, 1953, discovered in the National Archives
Sakai great-uncles playing baseball in Poston Internment Camp, Poston, Arizona, 1942
Mitsi and Chiye 1944, taken in Poston camp, Poston Arizona
Artist’s grandfather’s first photograph, born Watsonville, California, United States, September 24, 1914
Sakai family, Poston camp, Poston Arizona 1942
Grandparents motel room, photo made during a pilgrimage back to California to see the farm and land they lost during WWII
Artist’s Aunt and Uncle. Post War, Lakewood, Ohio
Sakai Great Uncles, duck hunting great lakes, post war, date unknown.
The Ireichō (Sacred Book of Names), the comprehensive record documenting the 125,284 persons of Japanese ancestry incarcerated in U.S. detention camps during WWII. Blue stamp mark made by Jennifer Sakai next to her grandmother’s name,
Mariko Mary Sakai, to honor her and all internees during an event at the Smithsonian
West Coast Trees from where the family originate. Grandmothers photo of Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa), with artist’s photo of Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)
Artist’s father being held by “Uncle” George Ikuta.
Poston Camp, Poston Arizona 1941
When We Return Home - 57th edition of the festival, the Rencontres d’Arles and the LUMA Foundation shortlisted book.
Shortlisted Artist: Jennifer Sakai | When We Return Home
Exhibited at the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece, June–July 2026.
The Biennial International Prize for Women in Photography.
Paris, France 2024
Aperture Creator Prize 2024
Aperture Foundation, New York