With Yoshio Watanabe, in 1935 he set up a studio for advertising and other photography in Ginza, Tokyo.

He was highly successful as a fashion photographer, notably in work for the magazine Fujin Gahō from 1937.

Together with Ken Domon and others, he set up the Young People's Photojournalism Research Society (Seinen Hōdōshashin Kenkyūkai) in 1938.

Tamura emerged from the war as a photographer of social issues in Japan, approaching them from a pacifist and left-wing angle.

In 1963 he set up the Japan Realist Photographers Association (Nihon Riarizumu Shashin Shūdan).