Soichi Kiyooka

Soichi Kiyooka (Japanese, 1915-1991) started taking photographs at age 17. In 1934, he moved to Tokyo and in 1936, joined the Pearlette Dojinkai camera group, where he met, among others, Kiyoshi Niiyama. Working for a communications equipment company before the war and for photography related companies afterwards, he became a free-lance photographer in 1964. Kiyooka specialized in landscape and abstract forms. One of his favored locations was the mountainous landscape of the Nikko region and its National Park. His works were displayed at the International Center of Photography, New York, in the exhibition Two Views of Japan: The Landscape Photography of Hidekazu Iwase and Soichi Kiyooka in 1994.