Grand Level, Yubari

Daidō Moriyama

1973 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Throughout his prolific career as a photographer, Moriyama has documented postwar Japanese life. Influenced by the graphic style of avant-garde Japanese photographers and William Klein’s off-kilter documentary approach, he has seamlessly merged Western and Asian aesthetic sensibilities. Grand Level, Yubari portrays a lone train passing through an old coal-mining town. While beautiful and even dreamlike, this photograph also elicits a foreboding energy, as the encroaching darkness seems to swallow up the unsuspecting children in the foreground.

Artist

Daidō Moriyama

Date

1973

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of Howard Stein, 2010