PHOTO: Nobuyoshi Araki In B&W
The legendary Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki (25/5/40- ), celebrated for his works exploring the theme of Eros and Tanathos, successfully depicting desire, passion, sex and death are a motif of his photographs, celebrates its 76th birthday with the exhibitions “Photo-Mad Old Man A 76th Birthday” at the Takaishii Gallery, and “Sentimental Journey–The Complete Contact Sheets” at IMA Concept Store (both in Tokyo).
By Dimitris Lempesis
After studying photography and film production at Chiba University, Nobuyishi Araki began his career as a commercial photographer at the advertising agency Dentsu. It was during the ‘70s that Araki rose to prominence as a fine art photographer. Publishing his first photobook in 1971 entitled “Sentimental Journey”, Araki then continued this project in 1991 with “Sentimental Journey/Winter Journey”. The original photobook documented his honeymoon with his wife, Yoko Araki, and the latter combines this with a visual record of her decline into a premature death. In 1974 Araki co-founded the Workshop School of Photography with other renowned Japanese photographers including Daido Moriyama and Shōmei Tōmatsu, and just two years later opened the Nobuyoshi Araki School. Since the early ‘70s, eroticism has been an essential element in Araki’s work. However it was from 1979 that Araki began his engagement with kinbaku, a form of Japanese bondage that has inspired much of his work since. Though provocative in nature, Araki claims that he “Frees the soul, tying the body” and in the other side “Since I cannot conquer the soul of a woman, I use the tying like a hung and the camera as a kiss”. Other pervasive themes include his flower series which, although not focusing on the exposed, nude female body like much of the rest of his practice, remain erotic through their specific rendering and positioning of the photographs, which recall both female and male genitalia. Nobuyoshi Araki’s works demonstrate a passion for vibrant colours and intense black and white photography. Inspired by Japanese traditions, both ancient and more modern, Araki’s influences include the Japanese art of Shunga, which reached its apex in the Edo period with infamous artists such as Katsushika Hokusai, as well as more unconventional signifiers of Japanese culture such as Godzilla-esque monsters, and modern Tokyo culture. Araki’s models also often wear the traditional Japanese kimono. In the photographer’s work, this traditional Japanese dress is intriguingly juxtaposed against the erotic posing of the models who wear them. These photographs are intimate depictions of sensuous subjects, as well as a documentation of everyday life in modern Japan. Most dates that appear in his photos are: April 1st as a reminder that the photographer is a liar, 6th, 7th and 15th August days where the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Japan surrendered during World War II, while after 2009 uses dates between 6 and 15 August paralleling the atomic bombs and the surrender of Japan with his surgery for prostate cancer and his treatment with radiation.
