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Eye Under the Influence — Daido Moriyama
How art and style of notable photographers can resonate
Making a definitive declaration of intent or meaning kills the photograph. — Daido Moriyama
Eye Under the Influence is a series of reflections on the impact of various visual artists on my own photography over the past three decades. In this chapter, I examine my early street photography education on the streets of Tokyo in relation to the fearless master of nuanced photographic street narrative, Daido Moriyama.
In the late 90s and early 2000s, I roamed the streets of Tokyo with a small Olympus MJU II and always several rolls of film in my pocket. Constantly moving between various locations of the company I was working for, I sometimes crisscrossed the whole city in a single day. I shot whatever attracted my attention. Rarely asking for permission, sometimes without stopping to catch my breath.
There were also magazine and newspaper assignments, which I shot with 35mm SLRs and even medium format cameras I lugged around out of necessity. Still, my tiny MJU II was almost always in my hand, ready to capture whatever curiosity piqued my visual field. Of all the cameras I’ve used over the years, this one was my inseparable companion, teacher, and friend on my journey through photographic life.
With a fixed 35mm f2.8 lens and a quiet shutter, the Olympus MJU II was perfect for intrepid street shooting. The Ricoh GR series that Daido used to shoot with was out of my price range back then. But like Daido, I often used the same Tri-X film pushed two stops in development, which now can be easily emulated in many digital editing suites.
Regretfully, trying to save on film during my last year in Tokyo, I started using Olympus C2 as a digital…
