DAIDO MORIYAMA SHASHIN JIDAI 1981-1988 by Daido Moriyama

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An important photo collection for tracing the historical sites of Daido Moriyama

A collection of works by photographer Daido Moriyama. The artist had been in a "major slump" since the early 1970s. After publishing "Goodbye Photography" (Shashin Hyoronsha, 1972), which explored the limits of photographic expression and consisted of "irrational copies of other people's photographs and television, and negatives taken with the shutter released without any warning," he went into a state of stall and went through a period in which he was barely able to take any photographs. He turned to drugs, his weight dropped to the 40kg range, and he was at rock bottom both physically and mentally. In the 1980s, he finally picked up "a dusty camera" and began to make a comeback. It was at this point that he was interviewed by Hasegawa Akira, the editor of "Shashin Jidai," for the inaugural issue.

The four works from "Light and Shadow" published in conjunction with this interview marked the start of his new career as a photographer, and Moriyama contributed essays and photographs to every issue (except for issue 1) of "Shashin Jidai" up until issue 63, when it ceased publication in April 1988. Moriyama produced six serials in "Shashin Jidai" ("Light and Shadow," "Tokyo," "A Trip to Nakaji," "DOCUMENTARY," "How to Make Beautiful Photos," and "Letters to Myself"). This book is an excerpt of the essays published in the serials, with English translations, and was produced with the aim of conveying the thoughts the author put into his works and the appearance of them at the time to collectors and art professionals outside Japan.

In his serialization in "Shashin Jidai," Moriyama was able to freely present his experimental works, which undeniably had a major influence on his later work. In addition, more than 80% of the negatives of the photographs he took for Shashin Jidai have been lost, and this book has been dedicated to restoring them by scanning the original magazines and including all of his works in this book. This 400-page book is sure to be an important photo collection in tracing the historical legacy of Daido Moriyama, one of the greatest photographers of this century.

The book includes an essay by the artist himself, as well as a contribution by photography critic Iizawa Kotaro.

With the publication of his serialized photo-essay Hikari to Kage (Light and Shadow) in the first issues of the magazine, Shashin Jidai, Daido Moriyama announced his return to photography after nearly a decade. Moriyama had been mired in an acute creative slump from his mid thirties, since the publication of his seminal book, Shashin yo Sayonara (Farewell Photography) in 1972. Unable to take nearly any photos for a prolonged period, he turned to illicit drugs, ultimately wasting away to little more than 40 kgs before he hit physical and emotional rock bottom. Lured back by Akira Hasegawa, Shashin Jidai's editor, he was invited to contribute photographs for each issue.

This began a long relationship between Moriyama and Shashin Jidai. He would ultimately make a total of six serialized essays that appeared through sixty-three issues (in every issue but one) until its' demise in April 1988. During this period Moriyama worked almost exclusively for Shashin Jidai and was given a free hand to explore and experiment and in the process evolved a new aesthetic that still informs his photography today.

Tragically, more than eighty percent of his negatives were lost from this pivotal body of work. In Daido Moriyama Shashin Jidai 1981?1988 the complete run of essays or chapters that appeared concurrently in Shashin Jidai are brought together for the first time, representing the only way to appreciate them without acquiring the original magazines themselves. Each complete essay is reproduced alongside a selected portfolio of images and written essays by Moriyama from each chapter as they appeared in the original magazines. Text appears in Japanese with English translation.

In over 400 pages it provides access to a pivotal period in the evolution of one of the most revered and influential photographers of the twentieth century, as yet undocumented in book-form.

Accompanying there is a short essay “The Photo Age: Daido Moriyama and Shashin Jidai” by Kotaro Iizawa. Translation throughout by Daniel Gonz?lez, Essays by Daido Moriyama, Text by Kotaro Iizawa, Design by Geoff Han, Editing by David Strettell and Miwa Susuda.

Product Information

release date Available now

Part numberGPHT11751W-2526200749863

Specification Softcover / H28.3 x W21cm / 424p

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