Daido Moriyama has been one of the most prominent and exciting Japanese photographer of our time. With many of his shots related to the urban life - in a very experimental way.
He approaches the world with a dynamic eye, capturing through his lens intense details on modern urban living.
Moriyama’s urban imagery shares some of its qualities with other great street photography of the 20th century, and he has cited the photographs of William Klein as a major influence. But his work involves strong responses to a wide range of modern art and literature, including photographs and graphic designs by many of his Japanese contemporaries, Andy Warhol’s silkscreens, and the novels of Jack Kerouac and James Baldwin. Moriyama’s mix of international and Japanese trends to represent modern Tokyo is one source of his photography’s power, and the exhibition will include a small number of works by other artists to demonstrate his visual sensibility, including prints and photographs by Warhol, Klein, Shomei Tomatsu, and Tadanori Yokoo.
In my own analysis, I feel that Daido Moriyama's style is very striking and bold. All of his most photographs are black and white. With the black and white tones varying across his entire portfolio – from grunge to high key.
Moriyama uses a variety of different compositions in his images. From the rules of thirds to the utilization of patterns (see below).
A very unusual and mature subject, portrayed in a very aesthetic and intense black & white photograph (above). The circle shapes from the stockings creates a strong pattern. Depth is created in this piece as the shapes of the stocking vary in size and shape. The black curved line creates a perfect harmony, between the black and white tones. In addition to that, it creates rhythm/sense of direction in the piece.
Daido Moriyama is a very inspiring artists, mainly to the fact that he shows everyday subjects in a weird, different and unusual manner. This is the reason why I want to pay homage to the works of Moriyama through a photograph, taking his style and mixing it up with my own personal aesthetics.
Jonathan Lim.
All images copyright Daido Moriyama.
