Photo, talks and rants

A simple look at photography, exhibitions, gears and imaging related issues.

Got the moves like Moriyama

I won’t say I am the No.1 fan of Daido Moriyama, but I think I am one of the more fanatical fans of his works here in Singapore. 

Recently, I managed to catch the documentary which he did with B.B.B. titled Near Equal Daido Moriyama. The alternate title of this film is also Stray Dog of Tokyo, which is quite apt, considering that one of his most famous images is that of a dog looking back at him.
 
The 2001 documentary was available on DVD, but from what I understand, it has since been discontinued. So, the method which I got the film was rather unorthodox, but a Moriyama fan got to do what a Moriyama fan has to, right?


The show features in-depth interview with several key people that Moriyama has dealt with over the past few decades, including Kazuo Nishii, Michiko Nasahara and of course, Araki Nobuyoshi. Also, viewers get to see how Moriyama shoots on the streets, his views on cameras and a glimpse into his personal life. For those who are interested, he is married with a kid, but he seldom meets his wife or child unless it’s absolutely necessary.
 
Several scenes show Moriyama shooting, and it’s interesting. A lot of times, he doesn’t look through the viewfinder to shoot, instead choosing to hold the camera, point at the subject, look away while pressing the shutter button. This probably explains why a lot of his pictures are tilted.
 
And so, being the fan-boy that I am, I decided to try this method of shooting over the Lunar New Year period.
 
With my D-Lux 5 set at my favorite settings, I looked out for scenes that will interest me. Here are some of them.

 
In the documentary, Moriyama also stressed the importance of the print. Viewers also get to see how he works in a darkroom. He manually dodge and burn the image, and said that it would be almost impossible to replicate the same look if he were to be asked to do it again.

Since an SD card wouldn’t fit into an enlarger, I chose to plug the images into Photoshop instead. Instead of tweaking with the contrast that I always do, I chose to dodge and burn the image instead.

All in, I am very satisfied with the results. However, the images are that of Moriyama, and not mine. It would appear that I have to work harder to achieve a style I can call my own.
For a transcribe of the documentary, click here.
  1. gohleonard posted this