nothing but the real thing
27th January 2024
FInally visited the Photographers' Gallery to see Daido Moriyama's retrospective. I can't recall when I first became aware of his work but I did make a small pilgrimage to a bookshop when I was Tokyo twenty years ago and end up buying Platform, a book that exemplified his stye - one I did and still love - in a brilliant way.
The presentation of the show at the Photographers' Gallery was a mix of scale, formats, sound and vision. One that caught my eye was Accident 1: Images of a Certain 7 Days / Longest Week Of 1968.
Press images of the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy rephotographed and photocopied by Moriyama as a reflection on mass media's relationship to real events. I felt an immediate echo of my New Europe and Permacrisis projects. Everyday life getting by while the headlines of history roll across our screens.
On the way in I passed a queue of people auditioning for the next series of Britain's Got Talent.
For a photographer who challenged the relationship between reality and image, the mirror appeared fitting.