Moriyama – Record 16

…I am by nature someone who has little use for such things as origins and fixed points, and as I actually think that adopting such conceptions would mean that I’ve arrived at a point where I should call it a day, in this respect “street photographer” surely is an occupation that suits me well. Nevertheless, capturing on film the extensive net of streets that stretched across the globe like a labyrinth sometimes seems to me just as pointless as sticking a rod in the ocean, happens that I experience a disappointing sense of futility. However, it is my extremely optimistic nature that encourages me to “keep shooting nonetheless”, and this mindset at least is standing firm. After all, I’m only happy when I’m out there with the camera in my hand, so this may in fact be the one point where my true identity manifests itself. In other words, everything’s fine as long as I shoot practically and leave the rest to the photographs and those who look at them.
This issue of “Record” features pictures for my Hokkaido exhibition that opens this summer at Otaru and other places, taken during two days of wandering around the area’s streets.
– from the afterword by Daido Moriyama (a part)