Japan’s pioneering street photographer

By Eve Watling

In 1972 Daidō Moriyama attempted to destroy photography. He released a book called “Bye, Bye Photography, Dear”, a hotpotch of blurry, indecipherable shots intended as “a book of pure sensations without meaning.” Immediately after it was published he burned all the negatives and announced his retirement from photography.

These were the actions of a photography obsessive, rather a detractor. Inspired by William Klein and the street photographers in America, Moriyama had spent the previous decade bouncing from city to city in Japan, taking photos of a country undergoing massive cultural change. His first book, “Japan: A Photo Theater”, was published in 1968. It was a high-energy, black-and-white depiction of the nation’s shadow side; painted actors, drunk businessmen, aborted foetuses. As his own intake of alcohol and drugs stepped up, so his photos became more violent and stark. “Bye, Bye Photography, Dear” was in some ways a breaking point: his work couldn’t be stretched any tauter.