Kiyoshi Niiyama

After technical studies at the Tokyo Institute of Electricity, Kiyoshi Niiyama (Japanese, 1911–1969) started to work as a chemist at Riken in 1935. He started to photograph intensively the next year and became member of a Pearlette camera club. Soon he showed his images in Japanese salons and international magazines. He helped shape Japan’s amateur photography scene as a member of the All-Japan Association of Photographic Societies and of the Tokyo Photographic Research Society’s screening committee. In 1954, Otto Steinert invited him to take part in the second subjektive fotografie exhibition, but difficult postwar circumstances prevented his participation. In 1957 he became director of the Tokyo Service Center of Asahi Kogaku, better known as Pentax. He was fatally stabbed in May 1969 by a mentally ill person.