Daido Moriyama

Record No.06, 2006
Daido Moriyama is one of the defining photographers of postwar Japan. He trained in graphic design before learning photography under Takeji Iwayama and assisting Eikoh Hosoe before becoming a prominent street photographer known for his rejection of technical precision to prefer a black and white “are, bure, bokeh (grainy/rough, blurry, out of focus)” style. Although not limited to figurative work, he often captures people in the midst of urban life, commenting that “the city has everything: comedy, tragedy, eulogy, eroticism.” His high contrast and often slanted photographs examine the balance between tradition and modernization in postwar Japan.
Moriyama was born in 1938 in Osaka, Japan, and is currently based in Tokyo, where he moved to in 1961. He was a member of the photographers’ group VIVO before its disbandment, where he met Shomei Tomatsu. Solo exhibitions have been held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, and the Fotomuseum Winterthur. His work is collected in the Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Pompidou, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and the Getty Museum, among others.
Selected Press
Document Journal
Discovering magic in the mundane with Daido Moriyama, Japan's street photography godfather
Miss Rosen
Selected Exhibitions
2016 - Fondation Cartier Daido Moriyama, Daido Tokyo
2008 - Tokyo Photographic Art Museum MORIYAMA DAIDO I. RETROSPECTIVE 1965-2005/II. HAWAII
1999 - Metropolitan Museum of Art DAIDO MORIYAMA: HUNTER