Daido Moriyama exhibits at Reflex Amsterdam

donderdag 24 maart 2022
12:25
By: Mical Joseph

Reflex Amsterdam is the first art gallery to exhibit a large selection of Another Country in New York (1971) by photographer Daido Moriyama. The photographs capture Moriyama's signature style: raw, out of focus and grainy. When taking a photograph, the artist rarely looked into the viewfinder to capture what he calls a "passing image. "Text: Mical Joseph
Image: Daido Moriyama

The photographer refused the edginess of photography to capture reality in its essence; exciting and chaotic. Another Country in New York covers the artist's trip to New York in 1971 in snapshots of the plane, hotel room, street life and billboards. It was the artist's first trip outside Japan. The strange frames, dynamic diagonal compositions and flashing lights capture the overwhelming feeling of the urban landscape in black-and-white photographs inhabited by both turmoil and beauty. The photographs were printed by Moriyama himself in 2002 and were never shown in full. They were hidden in the archive, but will now be on view for vintage photography enthusiasts and as a crucial body of work in Moriyama's oeuvre.

Inspiration

The series refers to the title of author James Baldwin's 1962 book, Another Country. Set in New York, Baldwin tells the aftermath of a young man's tragic death. Yet the book is really a portrait of New York City as each sentence pulses with urban buzz. It is no surprise that Moriyama refers to this book, as he gently puts his finger on the pulse of the city to press the shutter button. Describing photography as a "fossil of light and time," his audience is offered a fragment of a brightened, long-forgotten moment. His works are portraits of urban mystery, not an attempt to solve it. This sense of mystery is reflected in the double prints, where two photographs are printed back to back; two images are combined to reveal stark contrasts or overwhelming impressions of New York.

Moriyama, an outstanding photographer and a figurehead in the field, joined Provoke in 1968. The Japanese experimental project sought to report on lived experience through photography. This was a radical move that still resonates in Moriyama's work. The intense portrayal of New York in 1971 continually captivates through the confrontational portraits of New York; one so vivid and dynamic that it emerges from the photographs even decades later.

The exhibition opens Saturday, March 26, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Residence, Lijnbaansgracht 290 in Amsterdam.