Reflection and Refraction by Daido Moriyama

Reflection and Refraction is a retrospective collection of self-portraits and floral works shot by the renowned Daido Moriyama over the course of four decades; in other words, a compilation of Auto-portrait and Sunflower, two titles previously published by MMM in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Having witnessed the startling transformation of postwar Japan, Moriyama possesses a dark, intense eroticism and an appreciation for the tragic. His black-and-white photographs form a cumulative record – in the language of the everyday – of Japan’s often contradictory social fabric.

Underpinned by his forceful points of view, Moriyama’s extraordinary ‘street snap’ style brings a loose and casual aesthetic to scenes that would otherwise appear uninteresting, occupying a unique space between the objective and the subjective, the illusory and the real.