An imaging apparatus includes a storage unit to store information about one or more persons, the information about each of the persons including a direction in which the person exists, and permission for imaging the person by an imaging unit, and the information about each of the persons being associated with identification information to uniquely identify the person; a detection unit to detect a direction in which a person who speaks exists; a determination unit to determine whether the person in the detected direction is permitted for imaging, based on the information about the person stored in the storage unit; and a control unit to control an imaging direction of the imaging unit to turn towards the detected direction of the person, in a case where the determination unit has determined that the person in the detected direction is permitted for imaging.