Daido Moriyama

Private Asian Collection 

UK, London, Tate Modern, Moriyama Daido, 10 October, 2012 – 20 January, 2013, p. 49 (alternate edition exhibited)

Moriyama Daido. Shashin O Kataru, Uni-Books, Taipei, Taiwan, 2013, p. 345

This work is generally in good condition. Please note that it was not examined under ultraviolet light and out of its frame.
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Daido Moriyama is another active proponent of photography in the same period as Nobuyoshi Araki. Yet, the two would share very different philosophies in their practices. Born in 1938, Moriyama is one of post war Japan's most iconic photographers. Moriyama's early work briefly followed the aesthetic style of the VIVO photography collective in 1959 Tokyo, and the influence of American photographer William Klein. The artist only disregards an elegant and calm working style, but also the usual procedures for photographic development. Instead, he would transfer the raw ambience of the streets directly into the dark room, developing them into seemingly soiled and rough photographs. He makes use of high aspect ratios, strong contrasts and deliberately unrefined compositions to present, under a subjective lens, a post-war Japan that is characterised by drama and tension.

Stray Dog (Lot 864) is the most well-known work within Moriyama's oeuvre. The seminal piece was incidentally captured by Moriyama in the Misawa, Aomori Prefecture in 1971, and has been widely circulated since its inception. It was under the morning sun, in front of an inn where Moriyama serendipitously encountered this stray dog. In the highly-contrasted image, the dog shows a sharp gaze, with the overall composition focuses on the left. As the artist opposes the idea of a set theme for any shooting, the stray dog was nothing more than a pure subject. Yet, in this work we can no doubt feel that photography is certainly a reflection of the artist; the stray dog roaming streets and alleys can be considered to be a self- portrait of the artist himself. This also explains why Stray Dog has become the most well-known work of the artist, often serving as the focus for many of his exhibitions. Although Moriyama's works have been influenced by a spectrum of artists, the importance of Andy Warhol cannot be ignored. First exposed to Warhol's works in 1969, Moriyama is deeply influenced by the American Pop artist's oeuvre, even creating a series of works with repeated cans in the photography journal "PROVOKE". The essence of duplication, repetition and mass production in Warhol's work is exactly the nature of photography. In one of his interviews, Moriyama said, "I saw the origin of photography. I was very inspired. It is like making use of ordinary objects and giving them an obscene twist. That, to me, is the essence of photography." Motorcycle (Lot 866) is an unconventional work made by Moriyama in 2008, with a hinted tribute to Andy Warhol. Moriyama took his 1990 photograph Motorcycle and reprinted it on the canvas, which evokes the replication process in Warhol's work. Motorcycle is also the icon of US culture, the merging of it with an artistic style born from commercial culture is precisely Moriyama's tribute to American Pop Art.

Tights in Shimotakaido (Lot 865) is an iconic work from the 1986 series How to Create a Beautiful Photograph. Unlike his well-known street photos, How to Create a Beautiful Photograph was serialised in 1986. The black and white series' overall theme is based on fishnet stocking and lips. Among all the works in the series, Tights in Shimotakaido is arguably the most popular piece. In the image, the fishnet stocking appears as an expansive net dominating the whole composition, fully capturing the viewer's attention. Furthermore the female inner thighs, in a simultaneous state of exposure and concealment, acts as a fitting metaphor for the suppressed sexuality in Japanese culture.