A prolific Japanese artist, well-known as a photographer, graphic designer, and writer, Daido Moriyama has epitomized wabi-sabi, the Japanese aesthetic of finding beauty in imperfection. The most celebrated photographer to emerge from the Japanese Provoke movement of the 1960s, Moriyama is best known for confrontational, black-and-white images depict the contrast of traditional values and modern society in postwar Japan.
Born in 1938 in Ikeda City, Osaka, Japan, Moriyama currently lives and works in Tokyo. He studied photography at the Takeji Iwamiya studio in Osaka before moving to Tokyo in 1961 to meet the members of VIVO. He became an assistant to Eikoh Hosoe, gaining access to the Tokyo photo world through this position.
In his signature gritty style, Daido Moriyama often captured the breakdown of traditional values in post-war Japan during the American occupation of the country. His works allude to the struggle between tradition and modernism, capturing the social and cultural shifts and conflicts, industrialization, urbanization and the clash of capitalism with a traditionally insular society. Regarded as a master of technique, Moriyama creates distinct grainy and high contrasted images in black and white, often allowing for photographic chance.
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