Daido Moriyama stands as one of the most famous Japanese photographers in the world. His work has a look and feel that is impossible to mistake. And once you see his work, it is nearly impossible to unsee it, particularly in Tokyo.
In Tokyo, right before the pandemic hit in February of 2020, it was almost impossible to walk around the city and not see things how you would expect Moriyama to photograph them. The dark back alleys with random points of light from streetlights. Dark corners of tiny bars where patrons sit quietly smoking. Cars driving at night or their shapes while parked. Faces passing in the crowded streets at rush hour. The details of shop windows, signage of all types, and posters hung in public places. The more one looks and thinks about Moriyama’s photographs, the more everything somehow turns to high contrast black and white.
Born in Osaka, Japan in 1938, Moriyama grew up in a Japan that was recovering from the devastation wrought by World War II. In 1961 he moved to Tokyo, a city going through a period of great social upheaval. There he joined the influential photographers’ group VIVO, and began working as a freelance photographer.
Starting in June of 1972, and continuing through July of 1973, Moriyama produced his own magazine, titled Kiroku, though it was then referred to as Record. The magazine became Moriyama’s diaristic journal, documenting his work as it developed. Then in 2006, encouraged by Akio Nagasawa, the Japanese publisher, Moriyama was able to again resume publication of Record.
The first 30 issues of the magazine were edited by Mark Holborn into the 2017 photobook Daido Moriyama: Record published by Thames & Hudson. This sequel, also edited by Holborn and published by Thames & Hudson, picks up where the first left off. Daido Moriyama: Record 2 contains a selection of photographs and texts from issues 31 to 50 of the magazine, covering 2017 to the present.
The book is also made to call to mind the magazine’s style. It mirrors the look and feel of the original magazines. “It’s printed the same way and the production is the same,” says Mark Holborn, on a call from his office in London. “The printing is very, very good. It’s appropriate for Moriyama. It’s very, very high contrast, deep black, and it’s on a paper stock that’s like the magazine itself. It’s thin, but it works really well.”
Now in his 80s, Moriyama is not as active as he once was. Rather he has become more contemplative and philosophical. But he still reviews his work and life and engages with both. He has also moved from Tokyo, though it is only a short ride away from his new home.
“I think that it’s where an artist might go, just like an old man might retreat to a hilltop in the mountains or by the river to meditate and contemplate and write poems under the moon,” as Holborn puts it. “In some sense, Moriyama is withdrawn. He’s not traveling internationally anymore. And it’s a very Japanese course. It is a dignified withdrawal, and it implies a state of some enlightenment and some wisdom. It’s not the shutting down of the creativity far from it. It’s a completion.”
Contemplation is what one really needs when you look at Moriyama’s photographs. His work presents a view of the world that in many ways is uniquely his own. His photographs are captivating, inviting the viewer to sit with the work, look deeper, and search to try and understand both what is going on, and what Moriyama is trying to tell you through them. It is a look at places that are well trodden but seen in a way that makes the familiar unfamiliar, and presents what Moriyama finds in front of him as if they are all parts of a puzzle you need to work at to figure out.
“We might see a light bulb, we might see a piece of plastic food in the window of a restaurant, we might see a car taillight, all sorts of things are within the range of Moriyama’s vision, but he’s also ultimately showing you the tracks of people. And these are environments inhabited by people, populated by people, shaped by people,” Holborn explains. “And then you catch people crossing the road, hiding in the shadows. And in Record 2 you see Tokyo during the pandemic, and it’s often depopulated and isolated in a way that’s unusual. And their presence is very, very apparent when they appear. And then you certainly see this great mass of humanity when you cross a crowded square.”
The book is not an exact copy of the magazines. The limits inherent in publishing a book don’t allow for every page from the magazines to be reproduced. This has forced Holborn to cut photographs and make changes. But in having to do so, he has kept the integrity of the magazine, and the narratives inherent in the issues together. Each section still has its beginning, middle and an end. It is not just a collection of photographs then, like a retrospective book, but a condensed version of the magazines in book form.
Most of the photographs in Record 2 are also printed full bleed across the gutter, allowing the photographs to be seen bigger as they are spread across both pages. There are a few instances of two photographs being paired, but that is the exception. This allowed Holborn to preserve the edits of the magazine rather than impose his own visual narrative onto Moriyama’s work. It also allows one to really be able to see the photographs, and delve into them while still seeing how they relate to each other.
“I think that as time passes and we can see it more clearly, we start to see that this language, which was once so fractured and abrasive and fragmented, is in fact very lyrical and poetic. And so not only do we see the crows or the ravens, we see the undergrowth, we see the flowers. We might see a discarded bottle in the shrubbery, but then we’re going to see these plant forms and organic forms, and that’s existing side by side with the heaving city and its railroad tracks and Highways,” Holborn reflected. “And so you have this natural world which it draws attention to. And at the same time, we should be reminded that the city itself is a sort of being that is growing. It doesn’t stop growing and breathing 24 hours a day. It’s constant. And then the tectonic plate shifts. The ground is volatile, and the city is almost a kind of living organism, a breathing organism, pulsating and expanding. And I think he captures that. You get a sense of that. So that’s a very rich set of images, and he will leave a great legacy.”
Daido Moriyama: Record 2 is published by Thames & Hudson, and is available for $75.
