So this extremely late post actually comes from the 20th Decemeber 2012 informing you of my Tate Modern visit. However due to christmas time, mistletoe and wine, I have been somewhat distracted.
So on my journey home I did a half way stop at my nanny Pamela's in Islington, who took me to see this exhibition, and the only thing she told people about was the image of a vagina!
I will be honest that I did not know of William Klein or Daido Moriyama much before this visit. I came across it as my Grandad Tony told me of the William Klein documentary on the tele, as he knows too well my love of photography. AFter researching Klein on the internet I was intrigued and adamant to visit the Tate.
Expensive to view (especially for the Tate & even with our student and OAP rights for price reduction) the exhibition was quite expensive, but with such a detailed and rather large amount of content I could partially forgive.
Klein and Moriyama's work is so close in terms of subject matter with their candid shots capturing reality on the streets. The sometimes blurred, grainy images taken sometimes too close give a rawness to their photographs. I am shocked that it has taken me this long to come across both of these amazing photographers, who took such iconic images, that broke the conventions of the art form of that time.
Especially Klein who's talent does not just stop at photography, but also art and graphic design. Creative and ahead of his time he experimented with mixing these medias and even exploring the world of film and fashion.
I am inspired by Klein most notably after watching the documentary on him. Some of my favourite images are the ones with blur, agreeing with him that it "added an element to photography". Klein also loved that it created more of a painting aesthetic, the blurs appearing like brush strokes.
With a lot of todays photography being staged, set-up, story boarded and directed it was refreshing to see such honest and truthful imagery. The documentary also showed me how every image Klein took held a story or a meaning, giving a true depth to them.
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Explore modern urban life in New York and Tokyo through the photographs of William Klein and Daido Moriyama. This is the first exhibition to look at the relationship between the work of influential photographer and filmmaker Klein, and that of Moriyama, the most celebrated photographer to emerge from the Japanese Provoke movement of the 1960s.
With work from the 1950s to the present day, the exhibition demonstrates the visual affinity between their urgent, blurred and grainy style of photography and also their shared desire to convey street life and political protest, from anti-war demonstrations and gay pride marches to the effects of globalisation and urban deprivation.
The exhibition also considers the medium and dissemination of photography itself, exploring the central role of the photo-book in avant-garde photography and the pioneering use of graphic design within these publications. As well the issues ofProvoke magazine in which Moriyama and his contemporaries showcased their work, the exhibition will include fashion photography from Klein’s work with Vogueand installations relating to his satirical films Mister Freedom and Who Are You Polly Maggoo? http://www.tate.org.uk/
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Moriyama's small room of polaroids (shown in the images above) was so striking, I spent ages in the room gob smacked by how the images were placed together to make up a bigger picture. I already love polaroids period, however the detail and the vast amount of them was truly a piece of art. Again this showed a move of creatively pushing the boundaries of art and photography.
His take on Tokyo held slightly more gritty images. One of my favourites is the women wearing the netted sun hat, which Moriyama has composed so perfectly. His explorations of buildings with his experimentations with turning the photos and framing different angles of the same building next to each other is another few of his works that caught my attention a lot.
This exhibition has most definitely made me want to take the streets myself and capture such images, (as i had done in one of my a level projects). I too want to celebrate the diverse range of people and classes within our society today. And I hope that people would be as forthcoming to be pictured as they are in the images of Klein and Moriyama.
