Born in Kanda (Tokyo) on 25 February 1935, Tomiyama dropped out of evening high school in 1956 to study photography for himself.
The series — the literal meaning of whose title is something like "a sense for the contemporary language" — won Tomiyama the 1966 newcomer's prize of Nihon Shashin Hihyōka Kyōkai (日本写真批評家協会).
[2] Tomiyama's book Sadogashima (佐渡島), a collection of photographs of Sado island published in 1978/79, won the Kodansha Publishing Culture Award (講談社出版文化賞) for a work of photography and the PSJ annual award.
[2] In 1994 Tomiyama was shown the archive of glass plates by the then-forgotten Sado-based amateur photographer Tomio Kondō.
He printed many of these and acted as editor in chief for the first major collection of Kondō's works.