Daido Moriyama, a photographer whose work has had a profound impact in Japan, Europe and the United States, is best known for his photographs of seemingly mundane subjects – often street scenes – rendered in high-contrast black and white, with raw layouts where the image spills beyond the frame. But what is less well known is that he has never ceased to reflect on the meaning of photography. From his famous Adieu Photographie (1972) to the present day, he has written numerous essays and articles, most of which have remained unpublished in French. Alongside a selection of his photographs that resonate with the theme, this book will present numerous texts translated from Japanese for the first time. An entire chapter is devoted to his obsession with the very first photograph, Point de vue du Gras, taken by the Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce between 1826 and 1827 at his home in St Loup de Varenne.
