Seen: Okinawa s49
Who: Daido Moriyama
Where: Super Labo Store Tokyo
When: June 26 - August 22, 2020 (Open 1-7pm, Closed Mondays)
In 1974 Daido Moriyama took a trip to Okinawa with a half-frame camera and a few dozen rolls of film. Since I’m not a Moriyama expert I’m not sure when or where the work was first published- but I can say that Super Labo did a fantastic job with their exhibition and book of these photographs.
The work is grainy and rough- pure classic Moriyama- - but it’s more than just the “look”. His pictures have that particular, peculiar, and slightly detached quality of pure vision that puts them in a different realm than new pictures by the legions of contemporary provokey digi-preset-fans. I’ve never been able to put it into words right… Moriyama’s able to do something that is more than simply how it looks. “How it looks” is the goal for too many, especially now. Figuring out how to do that next part- the hard part, the true part- is what we would all be better off focusing on.
I digress.
The prints on display are proper silver gelatin ones enlarged from Moriyama’s original negatives. The largest print hangs behind the shop counter- it’s a meter wide and over a meter wide- apparently this is the first time Moriyama ever had a half-frame negative enlarged to this massive size. It looks great. The book is great. The whole show is great. Moriyama is great. Super Labo is great. Jimbocho is great. Film is great. Prints are great.
Photography is great.