Hiroshi Hamaya

Hamaya Hiroshi (Japanese滨 谷 浩, born March 28, 1915 in Tokyo, † March 6, 1999 ) was a Japanese photographer.

Life

Hamaya began photographing the age of fifteen. In 1937 he began working as a freelance photojournalist. In 1939 he met the ethnologist Shibusawa Keizo know which sparked his interest in the daily life and festive customs of the people of the remote Niigata Prefecture. In the years 1940 and 1942 he traveled in Manchuria and China; both countries were then occupied by Japan.

After the war, he traveled again to northern Japan and Niigata Prefecture. There his well-known series of photographs Village was built in the Snow. In 1950 he began to record the life in the big cities in image reports; However busy to continue with the rural Japanese life world.

As the first Asian Photographer Hamaya in 1960 a member of the Magnum Photos agency. In the 1960s and 1970s travels took him for various photo projects all over the world.

In 1987 he received the Hasselblad Foundation Award for Photography.