Before leaving it, I wanted to destroy it, But when I tried to destroy it, that’s when I realized I couldn’t live without it.via Daido Moriyama Captures the ‘True Reality of Life’ With His Lens (*) by Jenny Hsu (*).
I think that the most important thing that photography can do is to relate both the photographer and the viewer’s memories (*). At first sight a photograph looks straightforward as it slices off a scene or a moment in time. But the images that photography captures are actually ambiguous (*). And it’s because of this ambiguity (*) that I like photography..via Sampling in street photography (photographing other images like signs, posters and billboards) - in 35mm (*) by Alex Coghe (*) and Michael Ernest Sweet (*).
In Photography we must not always tell all. The ambiguity (*), the unsaid, the mysterious gives the image interest and arouses the imagination of the observer.via Learn from Daido Moriyama (*) by Alex Coghe (*).
It is not so much about the medium, as it is about the message.The above quote came from a question relating to his preferences to shoot film or digital, where he responded:
Since three years I am using either film or digital. So I am not much concerned about the ways of the digital camera. Depending on the theme of what I would shoot.. if I feel like I want to shoot in film, I shoot in film. If I want to shoot digitally, I will do that.
Most of my photographs are taken on the street, of objects on the street.via Daido Moriyama Photographs His Beloved Shinjuku (*).
I want to capture the relationship between objects and people.
I don’t ever think about what people are going to think looking at my photographs.
There are many things I can’t control.
That viewers see the photographs in a different way is really important, but it doesn’t influence the work.
My message enters the image, but I think it’s good if many messages enter the image, not just mine.
Monochrome has stronger elements of abstraction or symbolism.On Colour, he explains:
There is perhaps an element of taking you to another place.
Thats just the way I respond to things.
Black and white has that physical effect on me.
Colour is something more vulgar because the colour is making the decisions, it feels vulgar, and that seems to me to be the difference.via Is Colour Vulgar? (Wed 05 Dec 2012) (*).
In his ceaseless wandering and photographing – in the repetition – we see the artist's faith in the journey; the idea that by virtue of searching and looking, something will be found.via Tights and Lips (*).
Moriyama inherited this philosophy from Jack Kerouac's (*) On the Road (*).
I think that the most important thing that photography can do is to relate both the photographer and the viewer’s memories.For me and my ever failing memory, this is exactly what is the beauty of photography. While I am failing to remember names and the little details that make life easier in the connected world I engage in, I can remember my feelings and memories. Photography helps but, oddly enough, I also have a photographic-like memory for my feelings and scenes that catch my eye.
I’ve never been attracted to places that are very hygienic. I like a touch of squalor.The a touch of squalor quote reminded me of my Eiffel Days (*) and the superbly named book A Touch of Class: Learning to Program Well with Objects and Contracts (*).
Moriyama [..] treats each moment with absolute equality.This quote goes well with Trent Parke's (*) approach to viewing a photograph (*).
He neither makes any judgment himself, nor expects you as his viewer to make any.
The photograph is a moment experienced, nothing more and nothing less.
Moriyama is capable of something approaching documentary, [..] and he is capable of the lyrical .
But I don’t think he ever asks us to understand anything.
Reflection and transparency, such as the ones we come across in shop windows of the big city - hint at a virtual world of dreams and visions - fascinated photographers of that era... and me also.
