Farewell Photography by Daido Moriyama, published in 1972, is a significant exploration of photographic expression and urban existentialism. Created during a time of political and cultural flux in Japan, this work challenges the core values of image-making by intentionally breaking traditional photographic rules. Moriyama, aligned with the Provoke movement, sought to dissolve distinctions between reality and representation, using his camera not merely to document but to fracture and reconstruct the world around him. His project reflects the dissonance of post-war Japan, capturing the disorienting rapidity of modernization, which transformed the social and physical landscape of Tokyo.
In Farewell Photography, Moriyama's artistic vision emphasizes rejection and liberation. He aimed to "bid farewell" to formal aesthetics and the ideals of objective truth, capturing instead the erratic, fragmented rhythm of city life. Through his lens, Moriyama reveals a Tokyo teeming with energy but also laced with isolation, exploring themes of alienation and impermanence. This work serves as both a personal manifesto and a critique, reflecting his belief that beauty and meaning can arise from what society often deems errors—blurred, overexposed, or accidental images. Moriyama’s aim was to transcend the material limitations of photography, making visible what he considered the intangible essence of urban existence.
Aesthetically, Farewell Photography breaks from the clarity and control typical of traditional photography, instead embracing grainy, high-contrast black-and-white shots filled with motion and distortion. The photographs often verge on abstraction, capturing only the ghosts of recognizable forms—faces and places blur, dissolve, or become barely discernible. Moriyama’s technical choices, from shooting spontaneously at unusual angles to embracing the “flaws” of exposure and framing, contribute to a visceral visual style that is raw, tactile, and filled with unexpected beauty. The dense grain, along with visible imperfections, produces images that almost pulsate, challenging viewers to engage with the ambiguity and ephemerality of the scenes before them.
Technically, Farewell Photography showcases Moriyama’s willingness to embrace unconventional methods. His approach involved shooting with a compact camera, often from waist level or without looking through the viewfinder, allowing for greater immediacy and unpredictability. In this process, Moriyama experimented with overexposure, intentional blur, and grain to capture the fleeting, chaotic nature of the urban landscape. His technique subverts expectations, transforming what might be viewed as “mistakes” into deliberate elements of composition, conveying the visceral and uncontrolled experience of city life.
Reception shifted from early division to recognition of Farewell Photography as a key statement on the limits of photographic legibility. Institutional presentations—beginning with MoMA’s New Japanese Photography (1974) and later William Klein + Daido Moriyama at Tate Modern (2012–2013)—framed its impact beyond Japan. Subsequent retrospectives, including Daido Moriyama: A Retrospective (Instituto Moreira Salles, 2022), sustained critical attention. While honors such as the ICP Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement (2012) and the Hasselblad Award (2019) acknowledge Moriyama’s wider oeuvre, they also underscore the project’s continued relevance in debates on abstraction, authorship, and urban experience.
