Sakae Tamura (photographer)

Sakae Tamura (田村 榮) was a Japanese photographer, prominent in the years before the war.

Born in Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture, Tamura graduated from the Tokyo College of Photography (東京写真専門学校, Tōkyō Shashin Senmon Gakkō; now Tokyo Polytechnic University) and entered Oriental (オリエンタル写真工, Orientaru Shashin Kōgyō) in 1928 and became editor of . He was an active contributor to the magazine  and in Japan Photography Association (日本光画協会, Nihon Kōga Kyōkai), created in 1928 and a successor to the Japan Photographic Art Association (日本光画芸術協会, Nihon Kōga Geijutsu Kyōkai). He was a leading figure in the (新興写真研究会, Shinkō Shashin Kenkyūkai), formed in 1930.

Tamura's work was influenced both by pictorialism and by.

Tamura is particularly known for his portraits, and Shiroi hana (白い花, White flower, 1931) is the best-known of these and widely anthologized. Okatsuka says that it expresses a certain lyricism but “displays a more sophisticated sense of maturity” than the works of his contemporaries Masataka Takayama and Jun Watanabe.

Books by Tamura

 * Seibutsu shashin no utsushikata (静物写真の写し方). Tokyo: Sōgeisha, 1952. A guide to photographing still lifes.
 * Sakuga no daiippo (作画の第一歩 ). Tokyo: Genkōsha, 1954. A guide to the practice of photography.