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City Drifter｜Daido Moriyama Solo Exhibition Introduction

WKM Gallery is pleased to present "City Drifter", a solo exhibition of selected works by renowned Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama from 23 March through 11 May 2024.

Modern Japan photography went through drastic changes after 1960s; young street photographers like Daido Moriyama (b. 1938) neglected the country’s delicate political situation after Second World War and revealed a relaxed attitude towards U.S. naval base occupation. Differed with his predecessors, he shifted the re-examination of Japanese identity from a post-war context to the city’s popular entertainment instead. Tokyo was under tremendous change before the economic boom, entertainment business and marginal underground cultures became a stimulus to city drifters.

After working as an assistant for photographers Takeji Iwamiya and Eikoh Hosoe, Moriyama went independent in 1964. He has been publishing his works in photography magazines among others, and received a New Artist Award from the "Japan Photo Critics Association for “Japan: A Photo Theater” in 1967. Between 1968 and ’70 he was involved in the photo fanzine Provoke, and his style of grainy, high-contrast images that came to be referred to as “are, bure, boke” (grainy, blurry, out-of-focus) made an impact on the realm of photography.

Exhibition Details

• City Drifter｜Daido Moriyama Solo Exhibition
• Date: March 23-May 11, 2024
• Venue: WKM Gallery
• Address: 20/F, Coda Designer Centre, 62 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Hong Kong

About Daido Moriyama

Born 1938 in Osaka, Japan

Lives and works in Tokyo, Japan

After working as an assistant for photographers Takeji Iwamiya and Eikoh Hosoe, Daido Moriyama went independent in 1964. He has been publishing his works in photography magazines among others, and received a New Artist Award from the "Japan Photo Critics Association for “Japan: A Photo Theater” in 1967. Between 1968 and ’70 he was involved in the photo fanzine Provoke, and his style of grainy, high-contrast images that came to be referred to as “are, bure, boke” (grainy, blurry, out-of-focus) made an impact on the realm of photography.

Solo shows at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (1999) and the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris (2016) solidified Moriyama’s worldwide reputation, and in 2012, he became the first Japanese to be awarded in the category of Lifetime Achievement at the 28th Annual Infinity Awards hosted by the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. The “William Klein + Daido Moriyama” exhibition together with William Klein at London’s Tate Modern in 2012-13 was a showdown of two immensely popular photographers that took the world by storm.

Source of the above information: official press release

© Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation

Courtesy of Akio Nagasawa Gallery and WKM Gallery