Taka Ishii Gallery Photography/Film is pleases to present Nobuyoshi Araki’s solo exhibition Photo-Mad Old Man A 76th Birthday. This exhibition, which will be Araki’s 23rd with Taka Ishii Gallery, will feature nine color works from the Photo-Mad Old Man A 76th Birthday series and 471 black and white works from his latest series Tombeau Tokyo, also included in his large-scale solo exhibition shown at the Musée Guimet in Paris since April this year. The works selected from Tombeau Tokyo have never been shown before and are not included in the book of the same title published by Switch Publishing Co., Ltd..
All photography belongs in the next world. I mean, the next world is paradise. When I look through the camera now, every place is paradise.
Nobuyoshi Araki
Araki photographs the dancer KaoRi using positive color film annually on her birthday. He has collaborated with KaoRi since 2002 and has photographed her for over 10 years. The nine works included in this exhibition are the latest from this birthday series. He shot the images using 6 x 7 positive film to commemorate the 76th year of his life. The resulting images reflect a deep sense of both Eros and Thanatos.
Tombeau Tokyo is a black and white series, which Araki shot for his solo exhibition at the Musée Guimet. Araki has explained that when he was shooting Aoyama Cemetery from inside a car, the high rise buildings in the distance behind the gravestones began to look like giant grave markers, rendering the entire city a graveyard. Araki, who has stated he, “only feels like shooting in Tokyo,” has long observed the city and in his works, he combines documentations of the past and the present of the city with a projection of personal sentiments.
Both series show that Araki is increasingly approaching his subjects with an understanding that life and death are two sides of the same coin.
An exhibition catalogue for the current exhibition will also be available.
Press release courtesy amanaTIGP.
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