A broad monograph devoted to Daido Moriyama, one of the preeminent names in contemporary Japanese photography along with Nobuyoshi Araki, Yasumasa Morimura, and Shomei Tomatsu. Provoke is the title of the magazine founded in 1968 by a group of Japanese photographers, graphic designers, poets, critics, and political activists. Moriyama’s photography is indeed provocative, both for the form it takes (dirty, blurry, overexposed, or scratched) and for its content. The viewer’s experience of the photo—whether it captures a place, a person, a situation, or an atmosphere—is the central thrust in his work, which vividly and directly conveys the artist’s emotions. The approximately 200 black-and-white images sketch out an original perspective on Japanese society, especially during the period from the 1950s to the ‘70s, although the artist himself chose to conclude this selection with a number of photos shot in the past decade. An outstanding summary of the best projects Moriyama has pursued, in a richly printed volume.
