Daido Moriyama is a Japanese street photographer best known for his confrontational harsh black-and-white photography to convey the fragmentary nature of modern life with images depicting the contrast of traditional values and modern society in 1960s postwar Japan. Born in Osaka in 1938. After being assistant for photographer Takeji Iwamiya and Hosoe Eiko, he becomes independent in 1964. Notable for his rejection of technical precision in favor of the grainy and high-contrast images produced by a compact camera, the artist captures a diaristic experience of wandering city streets. Moriyama often presents his work in the form of photo-books, which he describes as open-ended sites, allowing the reader to decide on the sequence of images that they view. Since 1968, he has published more than 150 photo books. He is currently considered one of the fathers of street photography.



Personally, I really like the contrast to perfection, the use of black and white to denote hardness, in turn generating an almost abstract work. Where many of us see the streets normally, Moriyama already had his vision prepared to take photos with his personal stamp.


Website: https://www.moriyamadaido.com/en/