Masataka Takayama

Who was Masataka Takayama?

Masataka Takayama was one of the most prominent Japanese photographers in the first half of the twentieth century.

Takayama was born in Tokyo, Japan. As an amateur photographer, he published many of his works in the magazine Geijutsu Shashin Kenkyū, beginning in the 1920s. He remained an active photographer even after World War II.

He was talented at pictorialist photography and took many photographs using a soft focus lens and deformation and "wipe-out" techniques.

Takayama usually used a "vest-pocket" Kodak camera with a single-element lens. These cameras were popular in Japan at the time for snapshot use, and called ves-tan cameras; "ves" coming from "vest" and "tan" from tangyoku. Takayama's works are thus said to belong to the "ves-tan" school.