BIOGRAPHY

1949 Graduated from Tokyo Photographic College and then joined the magazine Sun News Photos, where he met and apprenticed under Kimura Ihee.

1953 Begins working as a contract photographer with the Shinchosha publishing house and became a contributor for several magazines, including Geijutsu Shincho, for which he took portraits of several major Japanese artists.

1965-72 Becomes a stringer for Time Life.

1984 Accompanies the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, the actress Kuroyanagi Tetsuko, around the world taking photographs of children in need. Tanuma began his career by photographing children in the Asakusa area of Tokyo and they have remained the focus of his work for over 40 years.

1995 Offered a professorship at the Tokyo College of Photography and becomes president of the Japan Professional Photographers’ Society (JPS).

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2004 Human Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.