Nobuyoshi Araki

Description

• A specially-bound, limited numbered edition of 3,000 copies
• Each copy individually numbered
• Includes foil-blocked, tipped in, textured pages
• Texts throughout printed on different sized, pre-dyed, various coloured stock
• Bound in special fabric and presented in a slipcase

Nobuyoshi Araki is arguably Japan’s greatest living photographer, and certainly its most controversial. The more than 300 books he has published over the last four decades attest to his inexhaustible creative energy, while his work, which often challenges social taboos surrounding sex and death, has drawn critical attention both at home and abroad. This major publication provides the most comprehensive overview yet of Araki’s highly prolific forty-year career. Araki’s key series of works are included alongside many new and previously unpublished photographs.

Akiko Miki is a curator at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris and contributor to art magazines such as Bijutsu Techo, Studio Voice, Tema Celeste and Exit Express.

Yoshiko Isshiki has been working with Araki for over 10 years and has been closely involved in all exhibitions of Araki’s work in Europe.

Tomoko Sato is a curator at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, where she has organized and curated a wide range of exhibitions. She has edited and published a number of books and catalogues.

Kotaro Iizawa is a photography critic and writer. He is the author of many books on Japanese photography, including Araki!: The Legacy of a Prodigy (1994). He was also the founder of Déjà-vu magazine (1990).

Ian Jeffrey is a photography writer, lecturer and curator. His books include Magnum Landscape (1997) and Shomei Tomatsu (2001), also published by Phaidon.

Hans Ulrich Obrist is a curator (at Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris), writer, editor and interviewer.

Yuko Tanaka is Professor at Hosei University, Tokyo, and has written extensively on Japanese literature and culture during the Edo period (1600-1868).

Jonathan Watkins is Director of the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. He was the Artistic Director of the 11th Sydney Biennale (1998) and has curated many exhibitions, including ‘Nobuyoshi Araki: Tokyo Still Life’ (2001).

‘The work of Nobuyoshi Araki is virtually impossible to sum up in a few words. But here goes … gritty reportage, rope bondage, dead cats, naked women, naked women drinking coke, and the occasional naked woman covered in small lizards. Phew! … If nothing else, Nobuyoshi Araki: Self, Life, Death is guaranteeed to cause heated debate!’ (Practial Photography)