“In spite of feeling that we will not be able to justify ourselves, we may have to act in such a way as to intensify our own internal contradictions. The awareness that history is inside of us will no doubt get us out onto the streets.” Kōji Taki
PROVOKE #3 was even more combative. Increasing the contrast of the copies to eliminate the halftones, Moriyama included photographs of beverages, canned goods and other products on the shelves of a supermarket. Shaky and unstable, the images gave the impression of a crazy race through the aisles, suggesting a hecatomb and the feeling of tension that permeated society.
Instead of the vibrant advertising images of Warhol’s cans of soup, his dark pop art oozed like tar, like the rampant Americanization melting Japan’s traditional lifestyles away.
The darkness, the sharp contrast and the overexposed grains of silver, reinforced by the developing techniques used for the films and prints, rejected journalistic clarity and associated his are, bure, bokes style with an ambiguous and sensorial world. The long sequences mature the narrative construction, setting aside the fragmented vision in search of dramatic unity.
Some of Provoke’s discourses seem dated, but Moriyama’s essays widened their scope over the years to address the relationship between intimacy and voyeurism, sexual freedom and consumption, fetishism and surveillance – still current themes. In 1970, the fourth issue of the magazine appeared, but it was the swan song of a project that sought to overthrow everything, without knowing what to put in its place.
Photographs in mineral pigment, 2022. Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation Archives.
Provoke #3, August, 1969. Photos: Aoyama, Tokyo, 1969. Reproductions: IMS Digital Team