Known as a master of the snapshot, Daido Moriyama is one of Japan’s preeminent photographers. His grainy, high-contrast style has come to be described as “are, bure, boke” (rough, blurry, out of focus) and sent shockwaves through the photography world. Over the years, Moriyama has held large exhibitions at museums in a host of different countries, and received countless international photography prizes, including the 2019 Hasselblad Award, and today, 55 years after his debut, he remains active at the forefront of the art world.

Based on the theme of “ongoing,” a new large-scale retrospective exhibition at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum focuses the city of Tokyo as seen through the constantly sprinting Moriyama’s lens in his latest color and monochrome works. In conjunction with the exhibition a book has been published that contains all works on display as part of the exhibition and includes images (monochrome & in color) from Moriyama’s ongoing “Record” series, “Pretty Woman” (2007), “K” (2017), and “Tokyo Boogie Woogie” (2018). Similar to the exhibition, the book focuses on the theme of Tokyo seen through the never-restless lens of the Japanese master photographer. In addition to a foreword by Daido Moriyama, the book also contains essays by writer Akiko Otake and photo critic Yoshiaki Kai, shedding light on Moriyama’s photographic practice and his legacy (all texts included in Japanese and English translation).