Daido Moriyama’s images are often grainy, blurry and out of focus. It’s a style he has been perfecting for 60 years, and one that has gained him a cult following. Often shooting from the hip, he captured the clash of Japanese tradition with accelerated Westernisation in post-war Japan. He celebrates photography as a democratic language and encourages us to see, feel and understand the world in a new way. ‘Forget everything you’ve learnt on the subject of photography for the moment, and just shoot,’ he urges. ‘Take photographs – of anything and everything, whatever catches your eye. Don’t pause to think.’
In the first UK retrospective of the artist’s work, the Photographers’ Gallery has dedicated most of the building to his oeuvre. We caught up with curator Thyago Nogueira to find out more.
Read our interview with Thyago Nogueira in issue 285 of B+W.