AP photo editor and photographer Toru Takahashi, who spent his lengthy career methodically photographing and sharing his expertise with colleagues, has died. He was in his sixties.
According to Mieko Takahashi, Takahashi, who was battling lung cancer, died Friday, just a few days after returning to his home in Tokyo. He was born in Kumamoto, Japan, and moved to Tokyo to work for the Associated Press as an editing assistant, running errands for photographers and journalists.
Senior employees taught him English and photography, and he finally got a job editing and taking pictures. He was well-known for his caustic sense of humor and his obsessive attention to detail when on assignment and while processing colleagues’ photographs for publication.
The AP would not regret sending Takahashi to cover a Formula One event in central Japan at the beginning of his career. He covered a wide range of big international events over his 36-year tenure at the AP, including Hong Kong’s 1997 reversion to China,
the 2002 South Korean presidential election, the 2000 and 2008 Olympic Games, and seven F1 races, both as an editor and a photographer. When Luis Concepcion fought Kohei Kono for the WBA super flyweight title in Tokyo in 2016, he caught a historic moment.
Toru Takahashi Parents
There is a lack of information concerning his parents.
