How to Create a Beautiful Picture 7: Nikko Toshogu

Known for his grainy, blurry, and out-of focus photographs depicting city life in Tokyo from the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Daidō Moriyama’s approach began to change in the mid-1970s. This photograph is a straight-on and in-focus detail of an architectural element of the Nikko Toshogu shrine in Nikko, Japan. The high contrast brings out the rich, intricate textures and patterns that decorate an exterior wall of the shrine. Though the title of the photograph may be tongue-in-cheek, the image clearly represents the ornate religious architecture, which features traditional Japanese patterns and natural motifs.