CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/1/2015

Daido Moriyama: Mirage

"When I began casting about for a fourth MMM title," Hisako Motoo writes, "it was none other than Moriyama himself who suggested we do a book of his unpublished color positives from the 1970s. And in typical fashion, he just handed the designer file pages of actual film strips. Bondage pics he shot one time only at S&M novelist Oniroku Dan’s request to make enough money to travel to Europe, since collected in the volume Kagero. Nudes for running in Japanese Playboy back then. Snapshots of glinting neon nighttowns, backside figures walking in train stations seen only once and never again, the thrust-chin sidelong disdainful glance of a woman, scenes drawn to Moriyama’s unwavering compass needle. He drank it all in, with that tough gut of his. And not just fragmentary moments, but forty whole years worth. After several decades, film takes on mildewy discolorations until we’re peering at scenes through a blur of frosted glass. As if the crisp coating of reality had worn away over time, misting into hazy mirages of memory." This beautiful, slipcased hardcover features a tip-on front-cover image and is published in a limited edition of 1,000 copies (of which 200 are available in the United States.) Each copy is signed by Moriyama on the title page, and both the book and the slipcase are numbered.