Moriyama, Daido ( a Japanese photographer)
In 1961, Daido Moriyama settles in Tokyo and becomes Eikoh Hosoe’s assistant before establishing his personal practice, from 1964. A member of the Provoke movement and influenced by William Klein, he creates crude, sensual and troubled photographs, bringing a new dimension to street photography and documenting the low life of the capital in the 1960s and 1970s. One day, as he is drinking a coffee with his girlfriend, he notices the fishnet tights that were hiding yet revealing her legs. He thus begins a striking body of work of close-up shots of legs in fine hosiery that speak of the Americanisation of post-war Japan and the increasing eroticism of photographic advertising. Highlighted, the fishnetted legs loose their sense and proportion yet the curve of a hip, thigh or buttock sensually uncovers itself. When combined to his Lips séries, spectators are invited to observe Daido Moriyama’s images with a fragmented scrutiny and play the game of associations to distinguish desire.
