Daido Moriyama: Record 34

For this instalment of Daido Moriyama’s ‘Record’ series, the photographer focuses on the city of Chichibu in Japan’s Saitama Prefecture, a place which has traditionally depended on silkworms and limestone as economic staples. Driven by a desire to escape the daily routine of crisscrossing Tokyo and its environs while taking snapshots, something which threatened to make him lose sight of his own mental stance in the chaos of the streets, Moriyama ventured to this enclave in the mountains in search of a less bewildering subject. There he snaps rail yards, eating establishments, temples, quiet backstreets, and car parks, even wandering into the city’s green outskirts.