“He argued that we cannot attempt to represent tragedy through photography – the medium can’t truly grasp the reality of conflict. Instead, he drew attention to the futility of photography. “All that was once directly lived has become mere representation,” Debord once wrote.Įven during the time of the Vietnam War, Moriyama refused to turn his lens towards the conflict, unlike his esteemed contemporaries such as Tomatsu and Ken Domon. Echoing Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle (1967), Moriyama was also ruminating on an oversaturated image world, in which the mere appearance of reality takes on the same significance as reality itself. The series was not about death itself, but the role of media the growing gap between real events and society’s consumption of images. Over the course of that year he developed the project Accidents: Premeditated or Not, in which he explored the dissemination of press images following the assassination of Robert F Kennedy. An example of ‘rensai’, translating into ‘serialisation’ – the practice allowed him to develop a project as a serial, in monthly chapters. In 1969, Moriyama produced a 12-part series with the magazine Asahi Camera. He is asking: what is the essence of photography?” “He writes about the medium in a very interesting and intellectual way – it’s not merely an explanation but an investigation into the very nature of photography. “His writings have not been very accessible before,” says Nogueira. The C/O show crucially displays Moriyama’s photographic works alongside his writing, adding a layer of depth to the photographer’s career by revealing his philosophical musings. “He didn’t want to observe and communicate the world from his own subject perspective … his work is really about removing any pretentiousness, clichés, or didacticism,” explains Nogueira, who originally conceived the exhibition at Instituto Moreira Salles, Brazil, where he works as the head of the contemporary photography department. ![]() ![]() While Tomatsu veered towards realism and even social documentary, Moriyama spearheaded a dissident photographic practice, one adopting an embodied and intuitive approach to the medium. He shunned modernist aesthetic principles and the idea that photography should attempt to capture reality. But Moriyama would ultimately diverge from his mentor, forging his own path. In 1961, Moriyama arrived in the city, following the footsteps of Shomei Tomatsu, who had established the short-lived Vivo Agency (Japan’s equivalent to Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Magnum in Europe). Bringing his non-conformist approach to photography into sharp focus, the show and exhibition publication reveal the frenetic spirit of Tokyo between the 1960s and 1980s – a time of rapid economic growth and political turmoil following developments in the diplomatic relationship between the US and Japan.Īmid the cultural transformation, Tokyo became a dynamic breeding ground for creative expression, particularly among a new generation of photographers. Rarely seen examples of his contributions to subculture photobooks are on display alongside 250 works and large-scale installations. ![]() Significantly, this is the first major exhibition to dig deeper into the Moriyama archives, tracing the roots of his oeuvre since the 1960s and early collaborations with Japanese photography magazines.
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