About Dai

Dai Sugano is an Emmy Award-winning photojournalist and senior multimedia editor at The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) / Bay Area News Group, where he covers a wide range of assignments, produces videos and covers in-depth projects. His work has included “Drugging Our Kids,” a 40-minute investigative documentary on the use of psychotropic drugs on California’s foster children and “Uprooted,” a documentary about the displacement of mobile home residents. He has also covered the end of life care issues, homelessness and rising living cost issues in the Bay Area, economic inequality in China, poverty in India and the struggles of Hmong refugees starting their lives anew in America.

His work has earned a national News and Documentary Emmy Award, two National Edward R. Murrow Awards and a Judge’s Special Recognition for Documentary Project of the Year from POYi. He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography (Team Entry) and has been recognized by various journalism organizations including Editor & Publisher, Best of the West, SND and the National Press Photographers Association.

In this ever-changing newspaper industry, Sugano is a visual advocate and coach, pushing the organization to experiment with new ideas, including After Effects animation, live streaming and finding better ways to engage audiences.

Softwares he uses: Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Audition, Wirecast, Garageband, CCS (enough to customize blogs), Photoshop, Lightroom.

FILMS l MULTIMEDIA

Last Refuge

2018: USA
The tech boom has led to skyrocketing housing prices and rents in the Bay Area. About 80 people — pushed out of apartments and into trailers and the edge of homelessness — have created an RV park.

HOUSE POOR: The Price We Pay series

2019: USA
Finding a house to buy or an apartment to rent has never been easy in the Bay Area. But since prices began a steady and relentless six-year rise back in 2012, it’s been harder and harder for anyone who isn’t at least a millionaire.

Saia's Promise

2018: 8 mins, USA
Follow the Fetu’us on their housing journey, as they struggle with their mortgage, scrape together money for rent, and ultimately face an eviction.

Drugging Our Kids

2014: 40 mins USA
A yearlong investigative documentary on the use of psychotropic drugs on California's foster children.

View from the rails

2015: 3 mins, Japan
The views from a train window are fleeting and mesmerizing. At nearly 200 mph, spellbinding images of Japan — the dense cityscapes, the dark mountains — whir past.

Should the Bay Area worry about Zika?

A short animated explainer on Zika. Produced with After Effects.

Capitalism Meets Communism

2011: 5 mins. CHINA, Beijing — This sprawling metropolis of 20 million is a canvas of contrasts.

Left Behind

2008: 6 mins India — A short film on India’s poverty

Uprooted

2007: 24 mins: USA — An Emmy winning documentary on a group of mobile home residents facing displacement in Sunnyvale, California.

Magic in Motion

2013: 4 mins USA — A national Edward R. Murrow Award winning video of behind the scenes of the Circus Vargas.

Gayla's Goodbye

2012: 14 mins. USA — A short documentary as a part of a yearlong series, “Cost of Dying.”

Spring Glow

2007: 3 mins
USA — Spring fashion video

On Assignment

2007: 4 mins USA — Photographic essay during the California Democratic Convention

Into the 25th Hour

2007: 5 mins USA — Emmy nominated short. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats’ attempt to reform California’s healthcare system.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Portfolio

India's Left Behind
"Ragpickers" salvage plastic, clothing pieces and discarded metal to sell as recycled materials in Mumbai, India in 2008. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Kincade Fire
Firefighters walk near a fire line along Mayacama Club Drive as the Kincade Fire burns in the outskirts of Santa Rosa, California, on Oct. 28, 2019. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

New construction homes are seen on the east Dublin hills in this long exposure photograph in 2019. The East Bay suburb is one of the fastest growing cities in California. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Last Refuge:
Surrounded by the wealth fed by tech titans like Google and Facebook in the Bay Area in California, a small community of blue-collar RV dwellers is fighting for the only place they can call home. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Last Refuge:
The tech boom has led to skyrocketing housing prices and rents in the Bay Area. The working poor are spilling into Bay Area streets for lack of safe, affordable shelter. RV resident Martin Santillan worked as a janitor at Google for 10 years until he was laid off last year. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Reflection on a city
The image of a model in a window display is reflected in glass of an apparel store on Jan. 20, 2015, in San Francisco. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Capitalism Meets Communism
This sprawling metropolis of 20 million is a canvas of contrasts. Young tourists in cowboy hats pass by Chinese army guards in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China on April 8, 2011. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Tango night
San Francisco in 2015 (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Virtual vacation expert
Portrait: Senior Research Scientist for Search Quality at Google Daniel M. Russell knows exactly how to use the search engine to take your virtual vacation to the next level. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Portrait:
“A Series of Unfortunate Events” author Daniel Handler, known by the pseudonym Lemony Snicket. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Portrait: Giggles (jester) is a part of Great America's annual Halloween Haunt attraction. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

From homeowner, to tenant, to evicted:
Saia Fetu'u made a promise to his dying mother that he would keep their house for the family. Twelve years after his mother's passing, he and his family no longer own the house but now live there as renters. The family is determined to stay but the rising rent — from $2,500 in 2011 to $4,374 in 2018 — has been threatening Fetu'u's promise. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Drugging Our Kids: An investigative project
“I don’t want to tell people I have a tremor because I was drugged for my whole adolescence,” said Rochelle Trochtenberg, 31, a former foster youth. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

The Chance to Survive
Eight-year-old orphan Vu Thi Hoang Lam sits by other orphans during dinner at an orphanage in Vietnam on in 2011. Nearly 120 young residents at Linh Xuan, from infants to teens, have HIV. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

"Governator"
Images from 2005 California special elections in which then California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's propositions were rejected by the voters.

The California gubernatorial recall election
Images from the California gubernatorial recall election in 2003.

The California gubernatorial recall election
California governor Gray Davis looks up as former President Bill Clinton answers questions to the media during their campaign visit to Olvera Street in Los Angeles on Sunday Sept. 14, 2003.