Nobuyoshi Araki

Fuyumi Namioka: I think you, Mr. Araki, have been obsessed with reality and fiction. And here’s my question: what is reality to you?
Nobuyoshi Araki: I have no idea! Reality to me is such things as enjoying this drink right now. But to be honest, I really have no idea. I just think anything, really. I only press the shutter. But I am sure that I feel something, because the movement of my finger is triggered by something.
Fuyumi Namioka in conversation with Nobuyoshi Araki, excerpted from Araki: Love and Death.

ACTIVE BACKLIST

NOBUYOSHI ARAKI: IT WAS ONCE A PARADISE
Text by Marcel Feil, Robbert Roos.
REFLEX EDITIONS
ISBN: 9789071848124 | US $110.00
Pub Date: 8/31/2012
Active | In stock

NOBUYOSHI ARAKI: THE BANQUET
Text by Ivan Vartanian, Nobuyoshi Araki, Jeffrey Ladd.
ERRATA EDITIONS
ISBN: 9781935004295 | US $39.95
Pub Date: 10/31/2012
Active | In stock

ARAKI: LOVE AND DEATH
SILVANA EDITORIALE
ISBN: 9788836617371 | US $65.00
Pub Date: 3/31/2011
Active | In stock

NOBUYOSHI ARAKI: SHINO
Text by Nobuyoshi Araki.
GRAPHIC-SHA PUBLISHING CO., LTD.
ISBN: 9784766111934 | US $29.95
Pub Date: 6/2/2002
Active | Awaiting stock

OUT OF PRINT LISTING

ARAKI: POLAEROID
Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist. Text by Nobuyoshi Araki.
OKTAGON
ISBN: 9783896110381 | US $45.00
Pub Date: 9/2/1998
Out of print | Not available

ARAKI: TOKYO COMEDY
Photographs by Toshihara Ito. Text by Nobuyoshi Araki, Elfriede Jelinek.
KORINSHA PRESS
ISBN: 9784771302501 | US $32.00
Pub Date: 11/2/1997
Out of print | Not available

NOBUYOSHI ARAKI
Photographs by Toshihara Ito. Text by Nobuyoshi Araki.
KORINSHA PRESS
ISBN: 9784771328327 | US $29.95
Pub Date: 5/2/1998
Out of print | Not available

ARAKI: TOKYO NOVELLE
Contributions by Gijs van Tuyl. Text by Nobuyoshi Araki.
CANTZ
ISBN: 9783893228539 | US $35.00
Pub Date: 2/2/1997
Out of print | Not available

Nobuyoshi Araki

Featured image, from Nobuyoshi Araki's Flowers series, is reproduced from Love and Death, in which Guido Comis writes, , in which Guido Comis writes, "Like Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith and Andres Serrano, Nobuyoshi Araki wants to uncover the mystery below the surface. But while Cindy Sherman and other western artists are convinced that the mechanism of the attraction and the dynamics of desire will never be revealed through the skin and the gaze, and therefore deride masculine attempts to take this route, Araki seems to think that the mystery will be endlessly revealed, in the umpteenth photograph to be taken, that it is concealed within the depths of a vagina or between the crinkled edges of a cabbage leaf, and he celebrates his own desire, yielding without embarrassment to the slavery of the sight."

Nobuyoshi Araki: It Was Once a Paradise

Text by Marcel Feil, Robbert Roos.
Published by Reflex Editions

Arguably Japan’s greatest living photographer and the author of over 425 books to date, Nobuyoshi Araki (born 1940) is internationally known for his erotic images of tied-up, beautiful nude women. It Was Once a Paradise presents Araki’s most recent photographic series, 40 diptychs that offer a meditation on sex and grief. Each diptych couples a new color photograph of a semi-nude woman in bondage with a black-and-white still life from his personal diary, a somber image taken on his Tokyo balcony: the site of his former private paradise haunted by his deceased wife Yoko and his cat Chiro. Nostalgic ruins contrast with erotic hope, forming a contrast that is echoed in the packaging of the book, which has been designed to be read in either direction, and comes with a choice of two different dust jackets.

Nobuyoshi Araki: The Banquet

Books on Books No. 15

Text by Ivan Vartanian, Nobuyoshi Araki, Jeffrey Ladd.
Published by Errata Editions

First published in Japan in 1993, Nobuyoshi Araki’s The Banquet (Shokuji) offers a moving tribute to the photographer’s late wife, Yoko, through a photo-diary of the food they shared together in the last months of her life. The book is composed of three related sections: commercial color photographs of meals shot by Araki from 1985 onwards, using a ring flash and a macro lens; a (written) food diary; and black-and-white photographs taken at home, using only available light, a series Araki began after doctors told his wife she had only a month to live. As Martin Parr and Gerry Badger observe, “The obvious metaphor is to suggest that the color was leaving Araki’s world, but his intentions are not quite so simple. The retreat from color is a retreat from realism to romanticism....” This deeply personal diary of loss is here reprinted in its entirety along with an essay by Ivan Vartanian.Errata Editions' Books on Books series is an ongoing publishing project dedicated to making rare and out-of-print photography books accessible to students and photobook enthusiasts. These are not reprints or facsimiles but complete studies of the original books. Each volume in the series presents the entire content, page for page, of an original master bookwork which, up until now, has been too rare or expensive for most to experience. Through a mix of classic and contemporary titles, this series spans the breadth of photographic practice as it has appeared on the printed page and allows further study of the creation and meanings of these great works of art. Each volume in the series contains illustrations of every page in the original photobook, a new essay by an established writer on photography, production notes about the creation of the original edition and biographical and bibliographical information about each artist.

Araki: Love and Death

Edited by Francesca Bernasconi, Fuyumi Namioka. Text by Marco Franciolli, Fuyumi Namioka, Guido Comis.
Published by Silvana Editoriale

Japan's most famous photographer, and one of photography's most prolific bookmakers, Nobuyoshi Araki is notorious for his erotic photographs of women in bondage. Japanese bondage, which differs from western bondage in its orchestration of knots and binding to arouse specific points upon the body, offers visual as well as erotic rewards that Araki has scrutinized with great zeal. Araki is able to bestow eroticism upon all manner of natural imagery, but is also celebrated for series such as Sentimental Journey and Winter Journey, which record his marriage and the death of his wife. Driven by an attraction to the uncensored facts of Eros and Thanatos, Araki has always made humanity the center of his concerns; but at several junctures in his career, the authorities have evinced indifference to such motives, removing his work from sale and arresting curators for exhibiting his work. Nonetheless, the craft of Araki's photography is not in doubt, and in recent years, his work has expanded to accommodate broader aspirations, inflected by age: "When I photograph unhappiness I only capture unhappiness," he told Nan Goldin in an interview, "but when I photograph happiness, life, death and everything else comes through." With over 300 photographs, this monumental survey provides a careful selection from his most important photographic cycles, from Satchin and Sentimental Journey to Winter Journey, Cityscapes Polart, Sensual Flowers, Bondage and others, to his most recent works.
Born in Tokyo in 1940, Nobuyoshi Araki worked at an advertising agency in the 1960s, where he met his future wife, Yoko Araki, the subject of his now classic volume Sentimental Journey. Her last days were recorded in a 1990 volume called Winter Journey. At the age of 70 his prolificness remains undimmed: "It is my past and the lust for life that is pushing me to take pictures now."

Nobuyoshi Araki: Shino

Text by Nobuyoshi Araki.
Published by Graphic-Sha Publishing Co., Ltd.

Nobuyoshi Araki is an internationally acclaimed photographer whose erotically charged work has put him at the forefront of contemporary Japanese photography. This volume is dedicated to images of Araki's favorite model, Shino, and presents her in Araki's classic style. She appears clothed and unclothed, bound by ropes, in the bath, indoors and out, all with his signature cinematic touch. Featuring over 70 images in both color and black and white, Shino is sure to appeal to Araki's legion of fans.

Araki: Polaeroid

Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist. Text by Nobuyoshi Araki.
Published by Oktagon

Araki: Tokyo Comedy

Photographs by Toshihara Ito. Text by Nobuyoshi Araki, Elfriede Jelinek.
Published by Korinsha Press

Nobuyoshi Araki

Photographs by Toshihara Ito. Text by Nobuyoshi Araki.
Published by Korinsha Press

Although only recently recognized by American and European audiences, the Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki is a cult figure in his birthplace. His predominantly black-and-white images always revolve around Tokyo, the preferred stage for his photography, which explores life 'in the shadow of death'. In addition to his trademark nudes, Tokyo Nouvelle is a kaleidoscope of images that capture the spirit of Tokyo through still lifes, architecture, and everyday objects.

Araki: Tokyo Novelle

Contributions by Gijs van Tuyl. Text by Nobuyoshi Araki.
Published by Cantz