Literature

Moriyama is fascinated by the urban landscape, which includes advertising images in shop windows, on walls and on hoardings. Anyone who has visited Tokyo will know how prevalent this is across that extraordinary city. I am especially drawn to this image, as the woman in the picture Moriyama has chosen to appropriate refuses to meet my gaze. She looks away and is preoccupied with something or someone else. The wire-mesh barrier that appears to incarcerate her adds another layer to the final image, and she remains unassailable. Building a complex language such as this in a photograph is difficult to achieve. But Moriyama does this so eloquently and I am always impressed as to how easy he makes it look. Moriyama still insists on printing all his own black-and-white prints, which few photographers do today.

- Michael Hoppen, Finders Keepers, p.160