Daid Moriyama

Inspired by the work of an earlier generation of Japanese photographers, especially by Shomei Tomatsu, and by William Klein's seminal photographic book on New York, Daido Moriyama moved from Osaka to Tokyo in the early sixties to become a photographer. He became the leading exponent of a fierce new photographic style that corresponded perfectly to the abrasive and intense climate of Tokyo during a period of great social upheaval. His black and white pictures were marked by fierce contrast and fragmentary, even scratched, frames, which concealed his virtuoso printing. Between June 1972 and July 1973 he produced his own magazine publication, Kiroku, which was then referred to as Record. It became a diaristic journal of his work as it developed. Ten years ago he was able to resume publication of Record, which gradually expanded in extent. To date he has published thirty issues, a number of them including colour. The publication of Record as a book enables work from all thirty issues to be edited into a single sequence, punctuated by Moriyama's own text as it appeared in the magazines. It used to be assumed that Moriyama's peculiarly Japanese style was tied to his Tokyo roots. The evidence of the last ten years demonstrates that Moriyama, a restless world traveller, has been able to apply his unique vision to northern Europe, southern France, the cities of Florence, London, Barcelona, Taipei, Hong Kong, New York and Los Angeles as well as to the alleys of Osaka, and the landscape of Hokkaido. The book ends in Afghanistan.

'The first thing I always tell anyone who asks me for advice is: "Get outside".' – Daido Moriyama Take an inspiring walk with legendary Japanese street photographer Daido Moriyama as he explains his groundbreaking approach to street photography. For over half a century, Moriyama has provided a distinct vision of Japan and its people. In Daido Moriyama: How I Take Photographs, he offers a unique opportunity for fans to learn about his methods, the cameras he uses, and the journeys he takes with a camera.

Considered one of the great masters of contemporary Japanese photography, Daido Moriyama is always on the road, a lone traveller whose black-and-white images recount visions and worlds hidden just beneath the surface of reality. This book contains 250 photographs taken over the latest five years. A constant flow of images that is often frenetic or suddenly suspended, following the rhythm of an unfettered, restless life spent travelling the roads of the world. Daido Moriyama (born 1938) is one of the most important living photographers and photobook makers.

"First published 2012 by order of the Tate Trustees by Tate Publishing, a division of Tate Enterprises Ltd, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG"--Title page verso.

Throughout Daido Moriyamas extensive career, he has continually sought new ways of presenting and recontextualizing his work, frequently recasting his images through the use of different printing techniques, installation, or re-editing and reformatting. In each iteration, images both old and new take on changed and newly charged significance. This volume, created during preparations for several international survey exhibitions, offers both the photographer and the viewer the opportunity to consider the photographers life work in a fresh light. The author has returned to his contact sheets from the past five decades, selecting previously known images as well as ones never before published. The pages offer reproductions of original contact sheets; sequences of new contact sheets made from recombined negative strips, which juxtapose images from the 1950s with those from the past ten years; and selections of individual images, both familiar and newly discovered. Together, these offer a compact and comprehensive assembly of the artists oeuvre, tracing recurring motifs and proposing startling new interpretations of some of his most iconic images. Moriyama has always sought meaning in the raw accumulation and gestalt of sequences of images. Labyrinth: Daido Moriyama makes public an exercise in reconsideration that the photographer has assigned to himself. In opening up this private process of re-examination to a wider public, Moriyama continues to challenge the viewer and his own practice, as well as the larger mechanisms by which photography functions and creates meaning.

'Provoke' is the title of the magazine founded in 1968 by a group of Japanese photographers, graphic designers, poets, critics, and political activists. Moriyama's photography is indeed provocative, both for the form it takes (dirty, blurry, overexposed, or scratched) and for its content.