Born in Osaka, Japan, Moriyama studied photography before moving to Tokyo in 1961 to work as as assistant to the photographer Eikoh Hosoe. Living in the aftermath of Japan's defeat in World War II to the Allies and the changes the Americans brought to his tightly controlled and traditional county, the young moriyama looked to the west for a way to approach and examine these changes that many traditionalists bemoaned. Influenced by the works of William Klein, Andy Warhol, and Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Moriyama found an energetic, dynamic way to depict the clash of the old/new, to show the Japan the was morphing into an Asian version of America.

The 60's and 70's was a crucial moment in Japanese history - the economy was booming, but underneath lay a profound sense of guilt and shame. Moriyama became a part of the new generation of post-war artists, who were trying to explore these contradictions and capture the evolving Japan.

Moriyama's 35mm. photographs are shot in the streeets, depicting the darker edges of everyday experience, the underbelly - strip clubs, dark bars, forbidden alleyways, transvestite performers, roadside scenes of urban decay. He is always the outsider shooting shadows as if he was on the run. His signature image of the snarling stray dog has become the artist's alter-ego. Moriyama's images are grainy, tilted, dynamic, expressionistic, alienated... more like the poetry of the Beat Generation than any haiku ever written.

Sensation and edginess are what he has always been after; through the years his style has become more focused and less blurry, but the images are still about a moment, a suggestion of an action about to take place or just completed. His favorite haunts are still Shinjuku, and Golden Gai, parts of Tokyo that still feel edgy and thrilling. "I want to express the realness of Japan. I want to show what is really going on." Moriyama says of his work. Moriyama still photographs and resides in Japan. His work has been shown in galleries and museums around the world.

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