was a Japanese

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...

. He was considered a major figure of mid-century Japanese photography.

Career

Umesaka joined the

Naniwa Photography Club The Naniwa Photography Club (浪華写真倶楽部) is an avant-garde amateur photography club that was established with the support of the Kuwata Photographic Materials company in 1904 in Osaka. It is the oldest amateur photography club in Japan. ...

in 1920. He first publicly exhibited his work in November 1922. In November 1926, he won first prize in the first ''Japan Photography Grand Salon''. He was a founding member of Ginreisha, a photography group that focused on innovative techniques. Formed in 1927, the group first exhibited in 1928, but became defunct around 1930.

Style

Umesaka's 1924 photograph ''Smoking City'' was considered unusual for Japanese photography at the time, as it depicted an urban-industrial landscape. Urban themes became common in Japanese photography in later years. He often worked in

gum bichromate Gum bichromate is a 19th-century photographic printing process based on the light sensitivity of dichromates. It is capable of rendering painterly images from photographic negatives. Gum printing is traditionally a multi-layered printing process, ...

, such as in ''Smoking City'' and ''Bamboo Forest''.

References

Japanese photographers 1900 births 1965 deaths Date of birth missing Place of birth missing Date of death missing Place of death missing {{Japan-photographer-stub