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| Picture Taken from the book 'Tokyo' By Daido Moriyama
Daido Moriyama (2005). Tokyo. Japan: Reflex new art Gallery. p56-57.
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The Book Tokyo by Daido moriyama is about explorations in japanese street photography and its difference from american street photography. The photographs were taken just after the second world war so it is almost a documentary piece of work about japan rebuilding society and returning to a normal way of life.
Although the book is by a japanese photographer the book follows english reading rules (left to right) as opposed to the japanese Right to left Reading rules. The opening of the book begins with 6 pages of text written about Daido moriyama by Marcel Feil. He talks about How street photography is synonymous with america and new york and how Daido wanted to explore a japanese way of street photography. He goes on to talk about the style of the images. how and where they were shot and a few facts about moriyama. although the text has a few quotes from moriyama the fact that he did not write it himself gives a bit of a less personal feel to it
The images themselves are all in monotone black and white, they fit the pages completely with no borders, because of this the book is very unique. many monographs use glossy paper and white borders to retain image quality or as a stylistic choice but the paper and printing style is different for tokyo. The paper is stiff and very cardlike but retains clear image quality (when images are clear) and is printed very well for black and white images. there are no pages that are too dark, no matter the amount of shadows or highlights in the image.
The pictures are in a quick snapshot style and were shot with a small handheld camera. there are clear images and then there are blurred action images due to the quick shot style moriyama chose. The images don't seem to follow any specific narrative or meaning but have obviously been placed in a specific order. there are single page images and many double page spreads. They are very interesting to look at as it shows the cultural differences between the eastern and western world.
Although the book is by a japanese photographer the book follows english reading rules (left to right) as opposed to the japanese Right to left Reading rules. The opening of the book begins with 6 pages of text written about Daido moriyama by Marcel Feil. He talks about How street photography is synonymous with america and new york and how Daido wanted to explore a japanese way of street photography. He goes on to talk about the style of the images. how and where they were shot and a few facts about moriyama. although the text has a few quotes from moriyama the fact that he did not write it himself gives a bit of a less personal feel to it
The images themselves are all in monotone black and white, they fit the pages completely with no borders, because of this the book is very unique. many monographs use glossy paper and white borders to retain image quality or as a stylistic choice but the paper and printing style is different for tokyo. The paper is stiff and very cardlike but retains clear image quality (when images are clear) and is printed very well for black and white images. there are no pages that are too dark, no matter the amount of shadows or highlights in the image.
The pictures are in a quick snapshot style and were shot with a small handheld camera. there are clear images and then there are blurred action images due to the quick shot style moriyama chose. The images don't seem to follow any specific narrative or meaning but have obviously been placed in a specific order. there are single page images and many double page spreads. They are very interesting to look at as it shows the cultural differences between the eastern and western world.
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