influenced by Picasso and Braque's paintings from L'Estaque (which Shiotani knew of via the writings of Nakajima), and also Maeta's paintings of Paris. In 1926, he won the first prize in the first contest ever run by Asahi Camera, with Fishing Village (Gyoson), a photograph of Takohana. From 1925 to 1927, Shiotani was also one of the key members of a group of photographers that in 1928 formally became the Japan Photography Association (Nihon Kōga Kyōkai, ). A successor to the Japan Photographic Art Association (Nihon Kōga Geijutsu Kyōkai, ), this published a magazine (Gashū, ) and an annual, and held meetings and exhibitions. It was open to expressive distortions made with the camera, in the darkroom, or to the print: in addition to removing the aperture limiter from around the lens of a Vest Pocket Kodak, this might include deforming the printing paper under the enlarger, wiping prints with darker oil, and selectively removing this or adding powder to lighten areas. The work of Shiotani and the three other key members – Yamamoto, Takayama and Watanabe – was highly regarded by Nakajima, whose publications made their work well known (and who in 1933 published a how-to guide for the Vest Pocket Kodak). From the mid-1920s, and often under one pseudonym or another, Shiotani's photographs frequently appeared in four Japanese photography magazines: Asahi Camera, Geijutsu Shashin Kenkyū, Camera and . All four were new, championing the new trends in art photography whose major proponents were Tetsusuke Akiyama () of the and Kōrō Kometani () of the Naniwa Photo Club, both with "a style reminiscent of academic painting"; Shinzō Fukuhara of the Japan Photographic Society, with "light and its harmony" (influenced by Impressionism); and Hakuyō Fuchikami of the Japan Photographic Art Association), with avant-garde techniques drawn from painting – four photographers who were also among the judges of the magazines' contests. Shiotani became a leading figure in photography in the San'in region, and known nationwide: although Tottori had the lowest population of any of Japan's 47 prefectures, it was influential; in 1927 it had the fifth largest number of members of photography organizations, behind only Tokyo, Osaka, Hyōgo (including Kobe) and Kyoto. Tomoko Takeuji identifies the 1929 photograph Boy Priest Sitting as the point at which Shiotani matured as a photographer. This was published as a contest winner in the September 1929 issue of Geijutsu Shashin Kenkyū, where Kenkichi Nakajima praised