Daido Moriyama’s exhibition ‘Hokkaido’ at the Rathole Gallery, Tokyo, is a visual delight. Seventy photographs based upon a three month stay on Japan’s northern most island do credit to one of Japan’s most famous shashinka (photographer). Moriyama’s work is difficult to access at times, however, ‘Hokkaido’ has been well thought out and laid out and introduces the casual viewer easily into his work. For the more experienced viewer you can spend time getting up close and personal with some rather large grain and wallow in the beauty of it all.
The photographs are presented in two rooms at the gallery. The first room, through which you enter the gallery, has the portraits (in orientation and not subject matter). The second, larger room, has the landscapes (again in orientation and not subject matter). Michael Kenna has spent a great deal of time in Hokkaido giving his version of the landscape. His is a much softer and gentler experience. Moriyama’s view is harsher and probably, for this reviewer at least, more representative of what Hokkaido is truly like. Moriyama’s trademark contrast adds rather than detracts. He mixes scenes of industrial output with bellowing smokestacks with gentler scenes of people practicing their trombones in the outside with equal aplomb. However, and given the time of these photographs exposure it is perhaps to be expected, there are plenty of sloping horizons. Plenty work a couple do not.
Though Moriyama decamped from Tokyo and spent three months on the ground in Hokkaido you do not get a sense of being part of the scenes presented. Like Moriyama, you do get the feeling of being the outsider looking in. This does leave you slightly detached from the photographs in a place sense but the technical aspects and unique scenes do hold your interest.
As mentioned earlier you do get the feeling that a lot of thought and planning has been taken with this exhibition. The split of portraits away from landscapes is a pleasing touch as are some of the groupings. The photographs themselves are minimally framed with little in the way of matting. The frames are touching each other giving the impression of a tapestry. The gallery is light and airy and on the cold day of viewing just warm enough to be comfortable. Though the main gallery room has a floor to ceiling window along one side allowing good light in to the room, artificial light is also used. This unfortunately reflects badly off some of the glass in front of the photographs – a minor quibble. The tapestry layout forces you to look at these photographs from a good distance, which given the ample room in the gallery you are able to do. Once you do this you could find yourself going in close and back out again with regularity.
Large grain, strong contrasts and plenty of thought make this exhibition well worth the effort to go along and see. A fine introduction to Daido Moriyama for those that have not seen much of his work. For those that have, a fascinating selection of previously unpublished work from the artist’s formative years.
Guy Yates
