Polaroid Polaroid

A major figure in Japanese photography, Moriyama Daido began inventing his frenetic and tormented visual language in the mid-1960s, privileging blurring, graininess, and a distortion of the real. Witnessing the spectacular changes in postwar Japan, his photographs express the contradictions of a country where a secular tradition persists in contemporary practices. Often blurred, set at vertiginous angles and full of close-ups, these images are about proximity and a distinctive relationship with the subject. His photographs of Tokyo, particularly the narrow streets of Shinjuku, offer a raw, hard vision of the urban world, illustrating the constant flux of Tokyo life. The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain has presented two of Moriyama Daido’s solo shows, in 2003 and 2016. The installation Polaroid Polaroidoffers a reconstitution of the artist’s studio through 3,262 Polaroid images. This unique work is an intense, intimate, and detailed view of his creative space. Several of his iconic artworks are recognizable in the installation, scattered around his studio between everyday objects and his work and research tools.