Kai is a photographer and student living in Silver Spring, MD. He is currently studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the University of Maryland, College Park.
"開" is his given name. The Japanese Kanji character roughly translates, "to open." His favorite interpretation is the Chinese translation, "[of a frozen river] to thaw."
He was born in San Mateo, California and grew up in Havertown, PA. In his early childhood and again in his early teens he lived in Tokyo and Fukuoka, Japan. He attended high school in Winchester, MA. In the summers you can probably find him in Newport, RI.
He completed his freshmen year of study at the Maryland Institute College of Art as a Photography major in 2019. He participated in MICA's holiday market in 2019 and photographed for MICA's Multimedia Event "Surface Tension" in early 2020.
He is published through Soft Lightning's "Vol: 2 Connection", MICA's MME 2020 "Surface Tension" catalog; has modeled for Evan Jensen's "Cool People Couture" magazine; and has exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography. He most enjoys photographing family and friends.
開 lives with his very-orange cat, Toffi, and cares for too many plants, movies, video games, music, books, comics and manga, and cooking.
Email: kai@toppa.com