Sakae Tamura (photographer)

Born in Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture,[1] Tamura graduated from the Tokyo College of Photography (東京写真専門学校, Tōkyō Shashin Senmon Gakkō; now Tokyo Polytechnic University) and entered Oriental (オリエンタル写真工, Orientaru Shashin Kōgyō) in 1928 and became editor of Photo Times [Wikidata].

He was an active contributor to the magazine Geijutsu Shashin Kenkyū [Wikidata] and in Japan Photography Association (日本光画協会, Nihon Kōga Kyōkai), created in 1928 and a successor to the Japan Photographic Art Association (日本光画芸術協会, Nihon Kōga Geijutsu Kyōkai).

He was a leading figure in the New Photography Research Society [Wikidata] (新興写真研究会, Shinkō Shashin Kenkyūkai), formed in 1930.

Tamura is particularly known for his portraits, and Shiroi hana (白い花, White flower, 1931) is the best-known of these and widely anthologized.

[2] Okatsuka says that it expresses a certain lyricism but “displays a more sophisticated sense of maturity” than the works of his contemporaries Masataka Takayama and Jun Watanabe.

Tamura's photograph Shiroi hana ("White flower") appearing on the cover of the large catalogue of the exhibition "The Founding and Development of Modern Photography in Japan", held by the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 1995.