Born in Tokyo in 1935, Naotaka Hirota loved trains even as a youth. He took his first train photograph when he was in junior high school (9th grade). During his high school years, he published photographs and travel writing in various magazines for railroad enthusiasts, and he deepened his contacts with other railroad fans.

In 1960, he began his career as a freelance photographer. With his first solo exhibition "Steam Locomotives" in 1968, he was acclaimed for his distinctive style, and he popularized the world of train photography in society.

Serving as the first chairman of the Japan Railway Photographers Society, founded in 1988, he has played a leadership role in the Japanese train photography world, being sometimes called the "god of railroad photography."

Now with over 50 years of railroad photography experience (amateur period included), Hirota is also active in photography for children's publications, such as publisher Kodansha's long selling "Norimono Arubamu" (Transportation Album) series, which has been going for 30 years.

Since 1999, he has edited the "Tetsudo Shashin" (Railroad Photograph) yearbook put out as a special edition of "Rail Magazine." While releasing new works or reissuing old ones, Hirota also introduces and reassesses works of pioneering train photographers and carries on a wide range of educational activities for amateur photographers.