An imaging apparatus includes a light emitting section that emits light toward a subject, and a light receiving element that receives incident light from the subject side. The light emitting section is configured so that the light emitted from the light emitting section along an illumination direction that inclines with respect to a reference direction at an angle greater than 0° and equal to or smaller than 45° has a larger irradiation strength than the light emitted from the light emitting section along the reference direction, the reference direction being a direction perpendicular to a plane that faces the subject.
