Daido Moriyama | The Labyrinth

2000s 

With his perspective on the concepts of origin and time, Moriyama liberated his photography and his memory from conventional restraints. In 2012, he presented Labyrinth, reinventing the way he handled his contact sheets and his collection of photographs. 

Greatly enlarged, the contact sheets show sequences from some of his iconic series, dating from the 1960s through to the 2000s. They can help us follow the photographer through the streets or observe famous characters such as the actor Isamu Shimizu, the woman from Provoke or the photographer Masahisa Fukase. Intimate moments alternate with views of Tokyo, Paris and São Paulo. Kodak Tri-X photographic film is his constant partner. 

As the name indicates, Labyrinth is not a map of his archive, because the original sequence of the film strips is shuffled, suggesting a continuity between scenes that never encountered each other. In contact sheets or in large grids, Moriyama represents his story of how he recalls and experiences it, rather than submitting it to temporal or photographic conventions. 

Life is not a continuous line through time but is made up of overlapping memories that mix the past, present and future, relived in unpredictable ways. Allowing these images to reincarnate in other