Daidō Moriyama: Fetishising reality
Black and white photography as erotic act
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Immersing in Daidō Moriyama’s photography is a visceral experience where light and shadows clash with an intriguing harmony, fetishising reality through the monochromatic. Slicing time with his lens, no street escapes the Japanese artist in search for his own desires within cities:
“FOR ME CITIES ARE ENORMOUS BODIES OF PEOPLE’S DESIRES”.
Criticised for his imperfect photography — too grainy, solarised, cropped, and scratched —
Moriyama denounces the type of photography lacking reality, the pretentious concept that art can save its viewers from misery. Refusing such optimism and naive artistic vision, he admits his own struggle with existing. Defenceless, his work translates the dark landscape that life happens to be, multiplying its disjointed instances into highly contrasted memories.
Trained as a graphic designer, his images wouldn’t be without his mastery of printing. Rephotographing his own posters to distort them, changing angles and dramatising details, Moriyama turns black and white into an erotic act.
A SENSUAL REPRESENTATION OF URBAN FRAGMENTS OF THE WORLD.
Immortalising what seemed wrong. Extracting beauty where there shouldn’t be any.
> > FOR THE CURIOUS AND THE GREEDY < <
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"Daido Moriyama in Hong Kong in 2012" by Ringo Tang
Artist Daido Moriyama – In Pictures | Tate
Daidō Moriyama: the photographer who didn’t look through the viewfinder
Daido Moriyama: A Retrospective
“The World Is Not Beautiful”: The Anti-Aesthetic Photos of Daido Moriyama
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Parce que j'aime Moriyama ->
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J’ai envie d’un instant
D’un instant de présent
+
Furtif
Comme tous les instants
Dédié
Comme un présent
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En Plus
J’ai envie de plus
Le plus là
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Qui ne peut-être l’instant
Furtif
Il n’est déjà plus là