Moriyama Daido T-82

In 2006, Powershovel Books initiated a public art event by handing out "toy cameras" to anyone and everyone who would take one, and exhibiting a selection of the resulting photographs. (The "toy camera" in question was a Polga, a hybrid Holga camera that used Polaroid film.) One of the participants was the legendary Japanese street photographer, Daido Moriyama--and it is that series of darkly poetic photographs that this book so lovingly collects, offering a more-tranquil-than-usual walk around Tokyo, with the distinctive details of the urban landscape that only Moriyama could capture. The peculiar photographic qualities of the Polga add a unique taste and some layers of diffused grays to the timeless art of Daido Moriyama. Daido Moriyama was born near Osaka in 1938. In 1960, he moved to Tokyo to join the eminent photographers group VIVO, whose members include Shomei Tomatsu. Since then he has collaborated with other prominent Japanese photographers including Eikoh Hosoe and Araki. Retrospectives of his work have appeared at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among other important international venues. He continues to live and work in Tokyo.