By the way, some people who went to this exhibition told me “I had been there quite a bit before” or “I felt like I was there.” They looked amazed and happy at the same time. During Moriyama’s talk at the gallery he said, “Photographs only capture a moment, but it is an attractive media that connects to others.” I think when people saw his photos and had feelings like that, we could have shared a similar feeling that he was talking about.

© Daido Moriyama

Moriyama usually has a 21mm and 28mm compact camera with him. He needs two different cameras so he doesn’t miss anything during a film change. He said he doesn’t shoot every single day. But he also said “Nothing starts unless I start taking pictures. It is like a sketch for painters, and I think it is necessary to take snaps on the streets. There are some things that come along with taking a bunch of pictures, and also things you don’t know. There is no quality without quantity. Before I had asked students how much they shot in a month. I think 20-30 rolls isn’t good enough. I’ve told them to quit before. People who go for quantity are more desirable than anything.” Moriyama uses Kodak monochrome TRI-X. “Monochrome is stimulates and is very erotic. Sometimes my heart is beating fast when I see a black and white world in the developer. I don’t deny digital or color…I use them sometimes; however, I have decided to keep using TRI-X until it’s discontinued.”

© Daido Moriyama

Like “Desire”, “Feeling”, “Record”, he mentioned a couple of words he was repeating in this interview and the talk at gallery. His photographs keep records of moments with intuition in the scenery of a city. There is a desire that photographers want to shoot just like breathing or smoking, and catch people’s breath which get a trace in a city life. After I heard his talk, I have been thinking about what these words mean, and realize my desire to take pictures is sparse. But I think his words and landscapes are affecting me in some way quietly.

Moriyama took a jacket cover picture for Jazz pianist Keiko Borjeson’s CD. It will be released in September, but museum started to sell these pictures in different collections. It also comes with the original print for limited to 300 sets.

This exhibition is held until August 26th. “Record” is on sale at the museum shop all year around, and they are expecting a new change. There is a photo exhibition “EROTICA” until August 5th, and an exhibition from a recent photo series “Hawaii” until July 27th. For his upcoming events, there is a photo exhibition at Tokyo Photography Museum in May 2008; a huge exhibition tour in 5 countries in Europe starting from Spain, and an exhibition in Germany in September.

Daido Moriyama Exhibition
Date: June 8th – August 26th, 2007
Open: 11:00 – 19:00 (Closed on Monday)
Place: Miyanomori Art Museum
Address: 2-1, 2-11 Miyanomori, Chuo-ku, Sapporo
Tel: +81 (0)11 612 3562
Planning: Daido Moriyama and Akio Nagasawa Publishing
https://www.moriyamadaido.com