Reflecting on the major movies, books, songs, and TV shows that represent Japan, it is almost inevitable to obtain the image of a rigid and repressed society governed by a sense of duty, nobility and honor, making the nation as inaccessible, remote and homogeneous as the hundreds of thousands of white-collar citizens who walk the streets. rush hour street
For better or worse, we accept that Japan can only be understood through eye of a local But that's exactly where it comes in Daido Moriyama.
Early in his artistic career in the 1960s, during the height of the student riots, Moriyama often contributed to the experimental magazine Provoke Magazine, based in Tokyo, and since then, he defined the angle that has accompanied him to this day: grainy, blurry, out-of-focus and anti-system photos, elements that come together to expose the other face of the rich society of the Japanese country.
“If you asked me to define a photograph in a few words, I would say that it is "a fossil of light and time". Source: © Daido Moriyama, official site.
began to formalize Osaka, the second largest city in Japan, having a Canon 4SB. He would go out on the street and capture everything that moved: women in kimonos heading to Shinto shrines, busboys smoking on their breaks, stray dogs and chubby children on bicycles.
Then he returned to the neighborhood Shinjuku to use as his playground, a darker, dirtier side of Tokyo where brothels, misfits, gamblers and vagrants, criminals and all kinds of lost souls, always hungry, abound. Right there is where the Japanese photographer honed his skills as one of the most prolific street photography artists.
With discreet yet intense and fast captures, always in tune with the rhythm, the movements of the city and the desires of its inhabitants, its essence gradually found its place and shone like that of a authentic urban photographer.
Many of the images almost have a smell. Some others have obvious "meanings". Others appear to have been taken offhand, or even by accident, smeared with silver halide and difficult to interpret. Some are inhabited by friends, co-workers or animals, while others manage to Tokyo, whose largest conurbation is home to 38 million people, looks like a ghost town.
To this day, over 80 years old, he continues to defy the rules of traditional photography and composition, mostly ignoring his own celebrity status, as well as the graces of the camera, defining that his modus operandi would be point and shoot with a digital camera and using the neighborhood of Shinjuku
In his deliveries, themes as basic as a dog wandering the streets and narrow alleys yokochō with its small and worn bars, the face of his country becomes energetic, almost possessed by a rreality so brutal that they feel like truth and existence blows. The characters of street photography daido moriyama they are not only portrayed, but come to life and voice amidst robust static.
under the influence of William klein, Moriyama's gritty black-and-white aesthetic contrasted sharply with the traditionally composed images of their European and American peers.
And while there are some works in color, Moriyama has always leaned towards black and white photography, as it has stronger elements of abstraction and symbolism, allowing him to capture blurred and dreamlike visions of your inner world. According to the same photographer, he explains:
Black and white is rich in contrast, it is harsh and fully reflects my lonely nature. The color is courteous and gentle, but I am heading towards the other world.
Although his desire to prowl the streets in search of new snapshots has not ceased, the latest documentary about him addresses the central conflict of an aging Moriyama: an artist indifferent to his past facing fans, editors and gallery owners obsessed with curating his legacy. . Or, as the title of the movie says: The past is always new, the future is always nostalgic.
His unique and bold style, coupled with his lack of composition, coupled with heavy grain, results in a refreshingly modern work, hard to place in time and hard to ignore, creating a cacophony of harmonious chaos with a poetic air of solitude that has helped the recognition of Japanese photography in an international context.