Daido Moriyama is an internationally acclaimed Japanese photographer, born in Osaka, Japan, in 1938. He is considered one of the most significant figures in post-war Japanese photography and is known for his unique street photography style.

Moriyama began his career as a graphic designer before transitioning to photography. He worked as an assistant to photographer Takeji Iwamiya and later moved to Tokyo to join a group led by Eikoh Hosoe. He was profoundly influenced by William Klein's work New York, New York, which challenged conventional aesthetics with its raw, direct imagery.

In 1968, he co-founded the legendary avant-garde photography magazine "PROVOKE". Though only three issues were published, the magazine championed a raw, rough, blurred, and out-of-focus visual style ("are, bure, boke") that was a stark rejection of the prevailing photographic aesthetics of the time, exerting a revolutionary influence on Japanese and global photography.

Moriyama adopted the persona of a wanderer, roaming urban streets, capturing fleeting moments of daily life and blending personal emotions with the social upheaval of post-war Japan. Key publications include his 1968 photography book Japan: A Photo Theater and Farewell Photography (1971). Influenced by Andy Warhol, Moriyama has also used silkscreen printing in his work, blurring the lines between art, commerce, and street culture.

Moriyama's works are held in major museum collections worldwide and have been exhibited globally at institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern in London, and the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris. His accolades include the ICP Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2012 and the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in 2019.