September 19, 2012

Daido Moriyama

Meet photographer Daido (Hiromichi Moriyama), a black-clad persona with an engaging mixture of cultural sophistication, intense professionalism, Bohemian glamour, and a Japanese sense of chivalry.

Born in 1938, in Ikeda-cho, Osaka, Japan, Moriyama joined Tokyo’s avant-garde VIVO workshop in 1958, just as it was closing. The artist went on to serve as Eikoh Hosoe’s apprentice.

Unlike his contemporaries, Moriyama’s work neither makes a political statement nor offers a critical view of the western influence on post-war Japanese culture. Video, television, and a full length documentary film have made Moriyama an intellectual icon, and a powerful cultural influence on younger generations of photographers and artists.