Daido Moriyama

Daido Moriyama (b 1938) is one of the foremost proxies of the dominant tradition within Japanese photography of the postwar era - subjective documentary photography.

Moriyama’s works reflect the postwar clashes betwen Japanese and western culture, and the break with traditional values, further enhanced by his photo appropriations of popular media, erotic scenes and consumer fetishism (Japan: A Photo Theatre, 1968). His photographs are characterized by their strong black and white contrasts, grainy and blured qualities, unusual angles and compositional cropping.

Since the 1970s, Moriyama has had a strong presence in newer Japanese photography, through establishing workshops and galleries, teaching, participating in the publication of magazines and numerous photography books, and through participating in an extensive number of exhibitions. Among the most important exhibitions is the 1974 exhibition "New Japanese Photography" in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, curated by John Szarkowski. The great retrospectives “Daido Moriyama: Stray Dog” in San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1999 and "Daido Moriyama" in Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris 2003, represent important presentations of Moriyama's works.

The exhibition is comprised of 71 black and white vintage photographs from the 1960s and 1970s, as well as 20 works in larger format, which are new prints of vintage motifs. In addition, we present, "Shinjuku," 1973, 25 pm, in our showroom, originally an 8mm video commissioned by Shinjuku Ward, which Moriyama himself calls an 8mm video version of “Farewell Photography.” The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Galleri Riis. All works are initially bought and owned by Peder Lund.

Works