Although he initially started his photography in secret, he approached Manzanar project director Ralph Merritt to ask to serve as official camp photographer.

At Manzanar, Miyatake met and began a longtime collaboration with Ansel Adams, who visited and photographed the camp in 1943.

In post-war Little Tokyo, many residents were unable to afford Miyatake's services and some opted instead to barter goods to have him photograph weddings and portraits.

[citation needed] After the death of his wife, Hiro, in 1971, Miyatake moved from his home on Third Street in East Los Angeles to live in neighboring Monterey Park with his daughter and her family.

[citation needed] Before his death in 1979, Miyatake and Ansel Adams produced a book, Two Views of Manzanar, a compilation of their photographs during the incarceration.

[citation needed] One of Miyatake's prized possessions was his white 1957 Ford Thunderbird, which now belongs to his youngest grandson, Mark Takahashi.

Youngest child and only daughter, Minnie, also worked in the studio performing clerical and business-related duties and currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Koyasan Buddhist Temple, where her father's remains are stored.

[citation needed] In 2001, Robert A. Nakamura directed the film, Toyo Miyatake: Infinite Shades of Gray, documenting the photographer's life and work.

Kevin Thomas characterized this film in the Los Angeles Times as the "eloquent, deeply moving Toyo Miyatake: Infinite Shades of Gray".

[11][12] In 2009, the film Toyo's Camera[13] was released, documenting the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II through the perspective of the photographer's images.