Special Post - Daido Moriyama

(Image borrowed from http://anti-corporation.blogspot.com/2008/07/daido-moriyama.html)

(Image borrowed from http://anti-corporation.blogspot.com/2008/07/daido-moriyama.html)

After watching the Daido Moriyama video in class (which can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VViYphLJWOk) I became inspired by Moriyama’s unconventional approach to photography, and chose him for this week’s blog post. Moriyama employs a no holds barred approach to photography – he simply goes out and takes pictures, without permission from the subjects, and doesn’t think twice about it. I find this very interesting considering how relatively strict Japan’s privacy laws are, escpecially in regards to taking pictures, regardless of whether or not it’s in public or not. It’s what many Kansai Gaidai students would refer to as a typical “Gaijin Smash:” a situation in which a foreigner does something despite it being against Japanese custom, although Moriyama isn’t a gaijin. I was felt very refreshed after watching the clip about him and his works.

Daido Moriyama was born in Ikeda, Osaka in 1938. At the age of 20 he took up work as a freelance designer, and two years later he decided to give photography a try, which he would soon discover to be his passion. He apprenticed under Takeji Iwamiya in Osaka for about a year, and then moved to Tokyo in 1961, where he would work as an assistant to the prominent photographer Eikoh Hosoe. Within a few years, Moriyama started working as a freelance photographer, which he continues today. He has over 70 published photography books, and has had countless exhibitions.

The main theme of Moriyama’s photography is uncensored, unedited Japanese daily life. Moriyama primarily focuses on urban settings, mainly in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, although he has dabbled in other genres, such as more natural environments in Hokkaido and Okinawa.

Moriyama’s photography is generally done entirely in black and white, although I think this adds rather than detracts from the picture’s impact. Many photographers are able to successfully manipulate the appearance of their works through color editing to the point where the impact of the picture can be completely changed. Because Moriyama sticks to black and white, there is a very raw and uncut feeling. Because of Moriyama’s spontaneous approach to photography, simply pointing and shooting whenever he feels inspired or moved to do so, he says he can go through 20 rolls of film on a normal day. Because of the sheer quantity of photos he takes, he is able to catch the little moments that can provide a very realistic window into everyday life in Japan. In this respect I think Moriyama is extremely successfully in his representation of Japanese culture.

Moriyama's personal webpage:

http://www.moriyamadaido.com/english/

Interview is Moriyama:

http://www.thememagazine.com/stories/daido-moriyama/

Collection of photos and (brief) biography of Moriyama from the Luhring Augustine gallery

http://www.luhringaugustine.com/index.php?mode=artists&object_id=86

Japanese Popular Culture: Fashion

When I hear the words “Japanese popular culture,” the first thing that comes to my mind is fashion. Japanese fashion is diverse, eclectic, and forever changing. Japanese people have an interesting knack of taking western-based fashion concepts and ideas but then strangely morphing them into their own Japanese version.

Last semester I went to a reggae festival in Hakodateyama, Japan with my host family. One of the most interesting aspects of the festival was the diverse array of displays of fashion present within the audience. As it was a reggae festival, my imagination beforehand was one of Japanese guys in raggedy clothes with dreadlocks and numerous piercings - which there was plenty of - but there was also a very significant presence of hip-hop inspired fashion as well (for example people decked out in LRG [Lifted Research Group, a very popular hip-hop fashion brand in the US], wearing big sunglasses like you see in rap music videos and fresh, new Air Force One Nikes - also note the girl with the cornrows in the above picture, a traditionally hip-hop based fashion characteristic) and also lots of blends combining both hip-hop and reggae fashion. I found this to be a very interesting dynamic considering when one generally thinks of hip-hop and reggae, they would conventionally be thought of being as in opposition to each other, however Japanese people seem to have a very unique way of blending elements from multiple styles of fashion together. This dynamic was also reflected in the music throughout the festival: my experience with reggae is rooted in Bob Marley, the Wailors and Peter Tosh - all of which are slow-paced chill rhymes which westerners think of as being quintessential of Reggae music - however the "reggae" at the festival was completely unlike any other reggae I have ever heard - extremely high paced and much more pop-sounding. All in all the experience was very insightful into the ways in which Japanese people infuse various elements and themes from fashion and music to create new, unique popular culture.

A Japanese friend of mine who loves "hippy" fashion as he calls it. To me his interest in 1960's era fashion is very symbolic of how Japanese people have a very interesting way of importing a style of fashion from the west and then transforming it and Japanizing in various ways, as noted in the description of the picture above. In the case of this situation, this is manifested in the sense that the 1960's are long over by pretty much any definition, coupled with the fact that there never really was a "hippy era" in Japan like there was in the United States during the 1960's and 1970's. To me this demonstrates Japan's interesting ability to import fashion styles from the west, sometimes relatively out of context as in this situation - but then turn them have them fill a niche of modern-day popular culture.