Iwata Nakayama

Iwata Nakayama (中山 岩太, Nakayama Iwata, August 3, 1895 – January 20, 1949) was a Japanese photographer.

Nakayama was born in Yanagawa, Fukuoka (Japan). His father was an inventor who held a patent for a fire extinguisher. Iwata moved to Tokyo and was educated at the private school Kyohoku-Chūgakkō. After graduating from that school, he entered Tokyo University of the Arts as the first student of its photography course. After learning artistic and commercial techniques there, he moved to the United States in 1918 as an overseas student of California State University, sent by the Japanese government. However he quit studying and began to work at a photo studio run by Tōyō Kikuchi (菊池東陽) in New York City. With his practical skills, he established his own studio, Laquan Studio, in New York.

Nakayama succeeded as an artisan, and traveled around Europe with his wife Masako (正子) and his son Iwao (巖). He stayed in Paris and he came to know Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy and their works (but he wrote that he didn't follow their style). He and his family went back to Japan in 1927.

After getting back to Japan, he began to work as a professional photographer in Kobe and helped propel Japanese avant-garde photography. He was associated with the Ashiya Camera Club (芦屋カメラクラブ) and educated some his juniors. He released some works in such magazines as Asahi Camera and Nihon Shashin Nenkan (日本写真年鑑). Furthermore, he produced one of the first examples of commercial montage photography in 1930.

Starting in 1932, he, Yasuzō Nojima and Nobuo Ina published the monthly magazine Kōga (光画). The magazine was a critical turning point in Japanese artistic photography. Nakayama was a pioneer of Japanese avant-garde photography and inspired many Japanese photographers through his works.

During World War II, he couldn't work to the full. His works became more and more abstract. When the war was over, he resumed his professional work and created new artistic pieces, but in 1949, he suddenly died (at age 54). It was just a few days after he was selected as a trustee of the Japanese Photography Association.