Toyo Photography Studio

Studio photographer, Omar Casasola, 43, looks over a client’s portrait at the Toyo Photography studio in Gardena on Friday, August 13, 2021. After the death of his mentor and friend, noted photographer, Gary Toyo Miyatake passed away on Dec. 29, the previous year from a stroke at the age of 69, Casasola took over the studio with Miyatake’s daughter, Joy Rika’s, 38, blessing. For the past year, Casasola has been working diligently to digitally archive his mentor’s work as well as that of the previous studio owner’s, Tak Isobe, another noted studio and wedding photographer who’s work spanned from 1950s to the early ’90s. Miyatake, was first taught and mentored about photography by his famous grandfather, Toyo Miyatake, who while as a detainee at the Manzanar concentration camp during WW2, clandestinely had a camera built from makeshift parts that he used to document life for Japanese Americans in the camp. What will ultimately happen to the Toyo Studio in Gardena is unclear. Photo by Jose Tobar

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