Considered autistic, Albert Moser lived with his parents—Jewish immigrants of Russian origin—until the age of sixty. In his youth, he was sent with the American occupation army to Japan, then held various odd jobs: aircraft washer on a military base, candy seller, and so on. But he always imagined himself as a photographer, particularly after taking a few courses in the field at the School of Industrial Arts as part of training programs for former GIs. Following this, he had a stamp made with the mention “photographer,” which he placed on the back of his photographs, alongside a methodical description of his shots. From the 1970s and for more than twenty-five years, he produced several hundred panoramas (sometimes reaching 360°), which he had printed in standard format by a local photographer. He then meticulously recomposed his urban landscapes into a linear format, assembling them photo by photo. What stands out, beyond the poetic boldness, is the deliberate intention to reinvent, even distort, the reality captured by his lens. Albert Moser never sought to exhibit his work. He kept his compositions rolled up together at the bottom of a bag, never showing them.
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