Moriyama Daido

Daido Moriyama (b. 1938) is one of Japan's most celebrated photographers. He captured the chaotic everyday life of postwar Japan in striking, lyrical, and experimental images. After working under Eikoh Hosoe and being influenced by figures such as William Klein, Moriyama developed a distinctive visual style characterized by heavy grain and blur. After capturing the attention of the Japanese photography world with early works such as Japan, A Photo Theater as a disturbing depiction of the era, he established his artistic identity with later series such as A Hunter or Farewell Photography. Moriyama was also a member of the photo magazine Provoke, whose radical ideas continue to influence photographers today. After his participation in the New Japanese Photography exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1974, Moriyama continued to gain international recognition. He remains a major figure in Japanese photography today, and continues to experiment and reinvent his own work.

*This text was contributed by Mitsuhiro Wakayama.
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