Your obsession with taking only good photos may be an unnecessary pressure that takes away creativity from your work. Let this Japanese master inspire you to break away from “good” but boring photos.
“If you are trying to take good photos, that might be exactly why they are boring,” photographer and educator Tatiana Hopper cautions in her video above. In our pursuit of perfection, if we're not mindful, we may end up with technically sound but boring photos. They may be clear and well-composed, but they also look like everyone else's. In the long run, you may not even like them at all.
Enter Daido Moriyama. As Hopper notes, the Japanese photography master built his career by rejecting the rules of sharpness, exposure, and composition. Instead, he embraced blur, grain, and chaos — the very imperfections that we have been taught to avoid from the very start. Instead of carefully staged or framed scenes, Moriyama explored the creative freedom of the snapshot format. The result? Gritty, punchy black and white photos that are full of character and intensity.
Hopper couldn't have chosen a better example of photography that breaks away from the pressure of perfection than Moriyama's work. Apart from challenging everything we know and learn about photography, he also made the imperfections part of his visual language and creative vision. "His work was never about superficial aesthetics, but about setting a new meaning for this word in the first place," she adds.
So, Hopper broke down his technique and came up with the Moriyama Method, not for us to copy him, but to learn how to develop our own way of seeing. She also talks about how Moriyama turns to his own compulsions to drive his work. This includes giving in to the need to photograph a moment, not stopping to think if it's technically correct or meets a conventional standard. All that matters is that he himself finds it compelling. He captures what catches his eye and thinks about what it can mean later.
Whether you're new to Daido Moriyama's work or looking to get reacquainted with it, make sure to watch Tatiana Hopper's full video to get inspired to try the Moriyama Method.
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