For the past 48 years, Daido Moriyama has followed his photographic instinct, drawn to subjects whose characters appear as vibrant as they are tragic while leaving the question of which for us to decide. The act of exhibiting, through the unraveling of images, has charted this one man's continuous urban exploration, which after nearly five decades is still going strong. As the title of this latest show at Gallery 916 suggests "1965~" is an open-ended invitation to visit a very particular place of extremely subjective representation — though on closer inspection, that place may, in fact, be somewhere very different.

Since coming to Tokyo from Osaka in 1961, after briefly working as a graphic designer and becoming assistant to photographer Eikoh Hosoe, Moriyama's eye has been persistent. His images are taken in the unlikeliest of places, buried deep within back streets, or are close-ups of the familiar, such as a pair of fishnet stockings worn by a then-girlfriend. His persistence is accompanied by a sense humor and the momentary invasion his camera creates.

The tiniest of details draws attention — an open hand as leathery as snakeskin, the emaciated figure of a stray cat or ragged dog. You're left to wonder how such creatures appear more human through their disgust for being photographed than a seated couple, who, resigned to being caught on film, arrange their hands on their laps instead of embrace each other.