Iwata Nakayama

Nakayama was born in Yanagawa, Fukuoka (Japan). His father was an inventor who held a patent for a fire extinguisher. Iwata moved to Tokyo and was educated at the private school Kyohoku-Chūgakkō. After graduating from that school, he entered Tokyo University of the Arts as the first student of its photography course. After learning artistic and commercial techniques there, he moved to the United States in 1918 as an overseas student of California State University, sent by the Japanese government. However he quit studying and began to work at a photo studio run by Tōyō Kikuchi (菊池東陽) in New York City. With his practical skills, he established his own studio, Laquan Studio, in New York.

Nakayama succeeded as an artisan, and traveled around Europe with his wife Masako (正子) and his son Iwao (巖). He moved to Paris in 1926, where he worked as a fashion photographer.[1] In 1927, the family traveled to Berlin and Spain before returning to Japan later that year.[1]

After getting back to Japan, he began to work as a professional photographer in Kobe and helped propel Japanese avant-garde photography. He was associated with the Ashiya Camera Club (芦屋カメラクラブ) and educated some his juniors. He released some works in such magazines as Asahi Camera and Nihon Shashin Nenkan (日本写真年鑑). Furthermore, he produced one of the first examples of commercial montage photography in 1930.

Starting in 1932, he, Yasuzō Nojima and Nobuo Ina published the monthly magazine Kōga (光画). The magazine was a critical turning point in Japanese artistic photography. Nakayama was a pioneer of Japanese avant-garde photography and inspired many Japanese photographers through his works.

During World War II, he couldn't work to the full. His works became more and more abstract. When the war was over, he resumed his professional work and created new artistic pieces, but in 1949, he suddenly died (at age 54). It was just a few days after he was selected as a trustee of the Japanese Photography Association.

• Nihon shashinka jiten (日本写真家事典) / 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers. Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. ISBN 4-473-01750-8. (in Japanese) Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese.
• Modern Photography Iwata Nakayama Retrospective/96-97 (モダン・フォトグラフィ　中山岩太展) Kyoto: Kōrinsha, 1996. (in Japanese) Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese.