Daido Moriyama Japanese, b. 1938

Daido Moriyama (b. 1938) is a foundational figure in contemporary photography renowned for a radical visual language that redefined the medium in post-war Japan. His work is characterized by a gritty, high-contrast aesthetic, often described as are, bure, boke (grainy, blurry, out-of-focus), which captures the raw, chaotic energy of urban life with an instinctive, snapshot-based immediacy. Emerging in the 1960s, Moriyama was notably a part of the short-lived yet deeply influential avant-garde magazine Provoke. His practice challenged traditional photographic formalisms, choosing instead to document the disintegration of traditional values and the rapid urbanization of Tokyo. By eschewing the viewfinder to capture the absolute present moment, Moriyama transformed the act of photography into a visceral, performative engagement with his environment.

Moriyama was born in Osaka, Japan and worked in graphic design until the age of 20 when he purchased an inexpensive Canon IV Sb from a friend. He worked in Osaka under photographer Takeji Iwamiya until 1961, when he moved to Tokyo to connect with the radical photography collective, Vivo, and its member Eikoh Hosoe. Bearing witness to the political unrest of Japan in the 50s and 60s, Moriyama began to utilize sharply tilted angles, grained textures, harsh contrast, and blurred movements to capture the excitement, tension, anxiety, and rage of urban life during this critical historical juncture. He published his first photo-book in 1968. Titled Japan: A Photo Theater, Moriyama showcased the spectacle of urban life in its ugliness and its splendor. He has gone on to publish more than 150 photo-books since then.

In 1974, his work was included in the landmark exhibition New Japanese Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and traveled on to several destinations across the U.S., beginning to cement his, as well as several of his contemporary Japanese artists’, enduring legacy in the American visual lexicon. Major exhibitions of his work include William Klein + Daido Moriyama, Tate Modern, London (2012); On the Road, The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2011); Daido Retrospective 1965-2005, The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (2008); and Daido Moriyama: Stray Dog, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1999). Moriyama's work is represented in countless private and public collections of cultural institutions worldwide, including The Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Tate Britain, London; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Moriyama is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award at the 28th Annual Infinity Awards from the International Center of Photography, New York (2012); The Culture Award from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie, Cologne (2004); The Photographic Society of Japan Lifetime Achievement Award (2004); the Mainichi Art Award (2003) and the Japan Photo Critics Association Newcomer’s Award (1967). He currently lives and works in Tokyo.