Daido Moriyama is exhibiting a selection of works both vintage and modern, primarily from the 1970's, a period in which he developed a signature style characterized by blur, high-contrast and rough printing. The photographs include Moriyama's now iconic image of a stray dog, Misawa (1971), as well as a variety of anxious urban scenes; streets and signs in the densely populated Tokyo districts of Shinjuku and Shibuya. In addition, images from the landmark photo-narrative from 1976, TONO MONOGATARI (The Tales of Tono), are complimented by Moriyama's anticipatory re-photographs of posters and billboards as well as images representative of Moriyama's a particular vision of a Japanese rural setting. As a whole, the exhibited works present a concentrated view of the early practice of, arguably, Japan's most important post-war photographer.
Daido Moriyama is one of Japan's most celebrated photographers. Since photographing a ragged, savage, and disoriented dog roving the streets of Tokyo in 1971, this declaration of his rebellious style already has over 30 years of history. Daido Moriyama is still just a rebellious as ever, while “ragged, savage and disoriented” have simultaneously become the descriptors of his photography, and now “random, irrational, and zero technique” can also be used to approximate the indescribable qualities of his work.
Moriyama’s exhibitions include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1999), the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain (2003), the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla (2007) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (2008). In 2011, the National Museum of Art, Osaka will present a Moriyama retrospective exhibition.