Memories of A Dog by Daido Moriyama.
Daido Moriyama is without question one of Japan’s most important contemporary photographers and it is not surprising that this memoir, first published as a series of essays in Asahi Camera twenty-one years ago, is regarded as a classic in photographic literature. In Memories of a Dog, Moriyama approaches photography through language, and it is difficult to say which is the more evocative medium. His vividly expressive prose is in perfect harmony with the grainy, black and white images that in turn have a poetry all their own. As both reader and viewer one becomes completely absorbed, and photographs that will always be remarkable are given a new, very personal, layer of meaning. This is an eloquent autobiographical account of the artist’s progress through life – the places he’s lived and traveled to, the newsreel theater that was like a “second school,” the bars, the coffee shops, and his journey to take his mother’s ashes to be with those of his father. From his earliest sensations of being, to the realization that he has become “willy-nilly and much to my regret, an adult,” Moriyama shares his idea of memory, and “the individual history that goes by the name, I.”
Colin Pantall: Blurred, Dark and Grainy:
Moriyama’s photographs from this time are some of the most distinctive images ever made. Blurred, dark and grainy, they are also completely at odds with traditional ideas of what a good photograph is supposed to be.
“Memories of a Dog shows he is thinking about what he does,” says Michael Hoppen. “It shows us the meaning in his work and the emotional turmoil that he went through as a photographer and an artist to reach the level he has reached. He has been through some torrid times and has a dark vision of the world. Moriyama’s work is about despondency, depression and despair.”
“Daido’s work is difficult,” says Michael Hoppen, whose Michael Hoppen contemporary Gallery represents Moriyama in the UK. “Sometimes people see it and think, ‘Why would anyone want to buy Daido’s work? It looks like he doesn’t know what he is doing. So when you see his work, you have to forget everything you know about photography. Instead you need to know something about his background and what he’s trying to do.”