At the end of 2013, Hamiltons will present Daidō Moriyama's Silkscreens. Produced exclusively for Hamiltons, the exhibition includes sixteen photographs selected by gallery owner Tim Jefferies, from Moriyama's broad portfolio. Each work, in a limited edition of three, is amongst the very rarest of his oeuvre.
The exhibition offers a broad overview of Moriyama's wide-ranging subject matter, with a combination of well known to lesser known images. Notoriously challenging and unsettling, Moriyama's work is both raw and instinctive, haunted by the American occupation of Japan after World War II and its consequent aftermath; the social and cultural shifts, industrialisation, urbanisation and ultimately the clash of capitalism with a traditionally insular society. His work alludes to the struggle between old and new, the emotional imbalance between two worlds and the urban malaise of Japan, chronicling the relentless tug of tradition versus modernism; spirituality versus commerce.
As with his Silkscreens, much of Moriyama's work is black and white with shades of grey. His style - dark and grainy - echoes the subject matter.
Daidō Moriyama, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 1998 © Daidō Moriyama
