Harsh, blurred and brilliant: the great Daidō Moriyama – in pictures
He is one of Japan’s most renowned photographers, a giant of the Provoke movement whose compelling images take a disturbing view of city life and the chaos of existence
- All photographs © Daidō Moriyama
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Daidō Moriyama emerged from the influential Provoke movement, which began as a magazine in 1968 aiming to ‘free photography from subservience to the language of words’.
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His bold, uncompromising style put Japanese photography on the international stage
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Moriyama acquired an early reputation as a provocative street photographer. These images are from Daidō Moriyama: A Diary due to open at Foto Colectania Foundation, Barcelona, on 12 March but now postponed.
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The photographs due to be seen in this show were drawn from nearly 50 years of work. Moriyama’s images resist chronological reading or thematic division
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Reproduction is important to Moriyama. He sometimes took photographs of his photographs, which he would then photograph again
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Moriyama continues to work every day, photographing his neighbourhood in Tokyo, but also travelling to America and Europe. His style is simple: stop, take a photo, move on
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His work is often abstract but he also creates decadent still lifes out of banal objects, giving them an almost fetishistic quality
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His work has been reproduced on coffee mugs, skateboards and T-shirts, reflecting his desire that these images should have a life beyond the exhibition space
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Moriyama has influenced generations of photographers around the world
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The photographer, who is 81, won the prestigious Hasselblad award in 2019
