Daido Moriyama: On The Road" A Retrospective Exhibition & Talk show, The National Museum of Art, Osaka July 2nd 2011

"Daido Moriyama: On The Road"
A Retrospective Solo Exhibition
June 28 – September 19, 2011
The National Museum of Art, Osaka

A retrospective which reflects upon half a century of Moriyama‟s works since his debut in 1965, consisting of an overall of 400 photographs taken in accordance with the publication of over 10 major portfolios. Approximately 100 color photographs taken of Tokyo will also be presented as part of the exhibition.
For more info, Osaka web page:
http://http://www.nmao.go.jp/en/exhibition/index.html
www.moriyamadaido.com

Here's his Wiki:

"Born in Ikeda, Osaka, Daidō Moriyama studied photography under Takeji Iwamiya before moving to Tokyo in 1961 to work as an assistant to Eikoh Hosoe. He produced a collection of photographs, Nippon gekijō shashinchō, which showed the darker sides of urban life and the less-seen parts of cities. In them, he attempted to show how life in certain areas was being left behind the other industrialised parts.
Though not exclusively, Moriyama predominantly takes high contrast, grainy, black and white photographs within the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, often shot from odd angles.
Moriyama's photography has been influenced by Seiryū Inoue, Shōmei Tōmatsu, William Klein, Andy Warhol,Eikoh Hosoe, the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima and Jack Kerouac's On the Road.
Moriyama has written a memoir titled Memories of a Dog."

On July 2nd, I went to see Daido Moriyama (1937-)'s Retrospective & talk show.

This was his first major Retrospective ever held in Osaka - his birth place. The exhibition covered almost entire his works since his first debut in 1965, which was divided into 7 or 8 huge exhibition rooms according to his series titles chronologically.

His talk show started at the entrance room little after 2 p.m. I went there trying to catch a glimpse of him but the room was already packed. I could hear his voice anyway. The talk show was little boring. There was no Q & A between he and his fans. Only a moderator who was holding a microphone could ask question to him about very basic ideas of his series in each exhibition room.

He was not talkative person and his answers were quite simple. So, during the talk show, we all kept following him one room after another. Once in a while, I could see him a little bit. He was a short but well built, extremely young-looking 74 years old man with full of black hair. He seemed little shy and I somehow got an impression that he must have been the man of perennial youth; man who had never lost his youthful vigor.

He talked about his current equipment - DIGITAL CAMERA. Surprisingly he was so quick to move into digital from manual print-making. He had been well known for his dramatic darkroom works such as dodging, burning, adding huge contrast to negatives etc. Now he does those things with photoshop...probably.

After the show, there was a book signing event. I didn't go but I bought several his essay books at the museum shop anyway. His essay was far more interesting than his talk show. He was so honest & fluent to express himself in his books.