Nobuyoshi Araki (Tokyo, 1940) is a Tokyo-based photographer. Araki completed his studies at Chiba University's Department of Photography, Painting and Engineering with a focus on the study of film and photography. His photographic project Satchin earned him the prestigious Taiyo Award in 1964, shortly after he joined the advertising agency Dentsu, where he worked until 1972.
Read MoreAt Dentsu he met his wife Yoko, to whom he paid homage in Sentimental Journey, a photographic record of their honeymoon published in 1971. Eros and thanatos (sex and death) has been a central theme in Araki's work; an abiding fascination with female genitalia and women's bodies in Japanese bondage, flowers, food, his cat, faces and Tokyo street scenes.
Araki was a recipient of the Austrian Decoration of Honour for Science and Arts (Austrian Embassy, 2008) and the 54th Mainichi Art Award (2012).
Nobuyoshi Araki is arguably Japan's greatest living photographer. His inexhaustible creative energy is attested to by the more than 450 books he has published in the last four decades.
Araki's exhibitions go back to 1965, when he exhibited at Shinjuku Station Building, Tokyo, Japan, his first show called Satchin and His Brother Mabo. From then on Araki's work has been exhibited permanently and worldwide through the years.
Text courtesy Reflex Amsterdam.
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