He started photography around 1933 — when he bought a Rokuoh-sha Pearlette (a besutan camera, or copy of the Vest Pocket Kodak) — and from 1934 subscribed to Photo Times, whose regular contributor Sakae Tamura inspired and influenced him.
Usui went on to win contests judged by Domon and held by Photo Art in the late 1950s.
Usui was not content to stick with realism: some of the photographs from his staged series of the 1980s Arsène Lupin appeared in Popular Photography and the self-published book of them is well regarded.
Usui won Aichi-ken Geijutsu Bunka Shōreishō (愛知県芸術文化奨励賞), a cultural award from Aichi Prefecture, in 1994.
[1] At around this time, he — like Shōji Ueda and several other photographers of his era — again came to enjoy photography with a besutan camera or lens.