Yotsuya (TOKYO, 1997) by Daido Moriyama
Yotsuya (TOKYO, 1997) by Daido Moriyama
Yotsuya by Daido Moriyama, a Japanese photographer who is famous for black and white photos. He made mostly photos of landscapes, flowers, women and traditional ceremonies in Japan. The work I want to comment is a black-and-white photo taken in Tokyo in 1997.
The photo is mainly about a person at Yotsuya, a very famous and old place in Tokyo. In half of the picture, then the remaining parts are blacken. There is a fading from black to light then the half-face of the person. As it is a black and white photo, colours look cold and soft with strong noise that particles are clearly seen on the photo.
It would be better to know what he would like to express in his photos before commenting on it.
Daido Moriyama had said, he loves cities, especially large cities. Larger the city, more types of people there, more stories and more rapid moves. Human and desires inside society are included in cities, which is a complicated situation. To him, he loves to take photos of this kind of confusing desire feeling.
He did not care much on principles of design and the elements of art. If a work is successful or not is depends on how texture, color or lines are organized, the composition of the photo overall is weird. Half of the photo is emptied, leaving it blank and just black. With strong noise and a little bit out of focus, making the photo is far away with the nice pictures that we normally see. However, there is more to tell.
According to the composition of the photo, he has not get an artist focus on those principles of creating image. But there is somehow, he is an imitational artist. All he others photos are very close to life, just like daily photo record. No political message behind his work, just close to life photos, a record of daily life of Japan ceremonies and what he see inside the whole society. No special effects, no additional retouch to the photos. So as this photo and the same photographer should be continuing his style of presenting ideas.
The right eye of the person should be the only organ on the face which can be clearly seen. Human eyes are the most trustable medium as eyes do not tell lies. However, the photo of showing half but not with another half is because it is the special feature of that place which he would like to express or he would like to express a strong sense of uncertainty and anxiety is expressed by the eye of person inside photo, we do not know and he did not tell. With the noise of the photo, the photo seems to be taken in places which is very dark and the camera have to do in this way in order to allow more light get into the camera. There is a big contrast in that, inside a famous and busy city, people have to stay inside the dark. It is able to allow audience to think about, which is quite successful.
Actually he is able to present anxiety and impatient feelings by using rough, blur, hand-shaking out-of-focus and high contrast to present there is a natural desire for animals and those stored pressure is getting unreleased to have a look. It is able to deliver some important messages like the feeling of uncertainty and anxiety can be delivered to audiences.
Finally, this is a piece of art work which valuable to have a look. It will be able to inspire you get some new insights of how people express their feelings like anxiety and feeling uncertainty. Although it is far away from photos we usually see, art work should be something exploring new margins for us rather than keep staying in our comfort zone.
