Daido Moriyama
Kagero (Mayfly)
Published by Smith Andersen North and Little Big Man, 2014
18 Photoengravings on copper plates
Limited Edition of 50 copies, signed and numbered
Size: 40x 49x 4.8 cm
Kagero, meaning "ephemeral," was born out of a collaboration with Dan Oniroku, author of numerous works of sadomasochistic fiction, whose books were often adapted into softcore pink films produced by Nikkatsu Studios (Japan's oldest film studio). Kagero can be seen as an extension of Provoke #2: Eros, a seminal publication from Moriyama's early career. Kagero remains Moriyama's only commission to produce a series of erotic works intended for a discreet, private audience. The images themselves consist of photographs of several naked women in states of servitude, in natural landscapes. [...]
While at first glance the work recalls the photographs of Nobuyoshi Araki, it is in a more sinister vein. This is not without reason, as Moriyama intended his images to represent the sadism of masculinity—clearly visible in scenes where male assistants bind their models with traditional Japanese bondage ropes—and the inferiority complexes that often accompany such demands for dominance. Here, Moriyama draws parallels between madness, libido, and, ultimately, death. With these considerations in mind, the images have much in common with the sculptures and drawings of Hans Bellmer, and also resonate resoundingly with Marcel Duchamp’s late work, Soyez Donnés.
The parallel between nature and death remains constant, and it is no coincidence that the mayfly has often been used historically as a symbol of the ephemeral nature of life due to the insect's extremely short lifespan. In this connection to the pastoral and decay, Kagero bears some similarity to Sally Mann's What Remains, an unsentimental observation of violence, death, and nature's reclamation of the former.