Nakagawa was born in New York City and raised in Tokyo, Japan; at fifteen, he returned to Houston, Texas. Nakagawa earned his Masters of Fine Arts in Photography from the University of Houston. He has shown his work extensively throughout the United States and abroad, and has been featured in magazines such as Art News, TIME, and Aperture. His work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums including the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Nakagawa is currently an Associate Professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.