[6] She first worked in commercial photography[6] for an advertising agency for several years before embarking on a career as a fine art photographer.
Kawauchi often thinks about new ways to see her photographs, allowing her to continue to find new meaning and significance in her work.
In 2001, she published simultaneously her first three photo books: Utatane ("catnap"), Hanabi ("fireworks"), and Hanako (a Japanese girl's name).
[14] There is not one specific theme or concept that Kawauchi chooses to explore with her image creation; rather, she does it spontaneously, observing and reacting to everything that is around her before doing and sort of editing.
Another subject that she explored in her book, Ametsuchi, was the practice of religious ceremonies and rituals that hinted at an earthly cycle involving the concepts of time and impermanence.
In the book, she depicts Japan's Mount Aso, a sacred site for a Shinto ritual called yakihata, and its volcanic landscape.
Ironically, witnessing essentially the rebirth of farmland take place, Kawauchi claims that she burned away her old self and was reborn herself.