Nobuyoshi Araki: Self, Life, Death: Limited Edition [Deluxe Edition] [Hardcover]

Akiko Miki (Author), Yoshiko Isshiki (Author), Tomoko Sato (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0714845760 | ISBN-13: 978-0714845760 | Publication Date: October 1, 2005 | Edition: Limited

"The Araki Limited Edition" is limited to 3,000 copies. Each copy is individually numbered and includes foil-blocked, textured pages. "The Araki Limited Edition" is bound in special fabric and presented in a slipcase. Nobuyoshi Araki is the most controversial photographer working in the world today. To his critics, he is no more than a pornographer and a misogynist; to his supporters he is a radical and a revolutionary, a figure who has challenged not just artistic limits, but social limits in post-war Japan. At home, he is a national celebrity. In the West, he is considerably less understood. This is the book that will explain Araki. In its sheer range of text and images, it is also the most comprehensive volume ever to be published on his life's work.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in 1940, Araki is the contemporary of Japan's other great post-war photographers - Daido Moriyama and Shomei Tomatsu. And yet he epitomizes a new era and a new approach. Where the work of Moriyama and Tomatsu was inflected by the experience of war, atomic devastation and the humiliations of American occupation - which found expression in disintegrated, abstracted black and white - for Araki, the war was in the past. His photographic vocabulary was influenced by the vivid colours and glossy imagery of the new commercial culture. Until 1972, he worked for the Dentsu Advertising Agency. Araki was different in making his own life and feelings the central subject of his work: he didn't report on the world around him, like Moriyama, but on himself. Even when photographing the urban landscape, Araki rarely strays from his immediate neighbourhood in Tokyo. His first book, Sentimental Journey, 1971, an intimate account of his honeymoon with his wife Yoko, heralded the beginning of 40 years of 'I-photography' (a word he derived from the 'I-novel' a form of popular Japanese fiction written autobiographically and in the first person). For Araki, photography began as a visual diary which grew and grew into a hyperactive, obsessive-compulsive flood of images until the point of separation between his life and his photography crumbled. "Photography is Life!" he declared. He photographs as continuously as he breathes. And he makes few distinctions between good or bad images. Araki is passionate about photography and equally passionate about sex. Sex is the energising life force: and the act of photography is itself an erotic act, a declaration of his energy and desire for life. Women are his main subject - but they are also his medium: "Woman is photography... I think that all the attractions in life are implied in women. There are many essential elements: beauty, disgust, obscenity, purity." Araki's quintessential kinbaku shots - gorgeous geishas bound in rope or wire, dangling helplessly from the rafters - have a complex and critical relationship to the culture in which they exist, something often misunderstood by Western feminists. In Japan, it is prohibited to depict pubic hair. Araki's highly aestheticised nudes broke social taboos: on several occasions his exhibitions have been raided and he has been arrested by the police. Like de Sade many years before him, Araki can be seen as using pornography to challenge restrictive social conventions. Athough Araki himself is typically romantic about his kinbaku images: "I only tie up a woman's body because I know I cannot tie up her heart."

Product Details

• Hardcover: 720 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press; Limited edition (October 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714845760
• ISBN-13: 978-0714845760
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.9 x 2.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,273,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Overview, April 21, 2006

By 

Joshua Weiner (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Nobuyoshi Araki: Self, Life, Death (Hardcover)

My back still aches from carrying the damn thing home with me from the office which should give you an idea of just how comprehensive the work is.

The initial impression that most people have of Araki is that he's a dirty, dirty old man.

Which is true.

More importantly, he's someone who has documented every aspect of his life through photography. As much as people will focus on the sexual aspects of Araki's work, its just a part of the larger body of work which quite simply, includes everything. The book does an excellent job of selecting some highlights from an immense body of work produced by everyone's favorite dirty uncle. I have yet to extensively go through the interviews and writing but they provide a nice insight into his process and philosophy of photography.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anthology well worth the time, March 19, 2006

By 

Apollo Clark "photographer" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Nobuyoshi Araki: Self, Life, Death: Limited Edition (Hardcover)

If you've heard of Nobuyoshi Araki, want to get to know him, or are a little curious, this is the perfect book to look at. It is an anthology of his career, with a preface interview, history of each of his major releases, every well known shot, all presented in a highquality book.

Araki is a prolific artist who helped define Japans photographic conscience. Starting as most professional photographers do working for an ad agency, he spent his free time creating photos to express his past, environment, and passions, all tinged with his sense of playful rebellion. I would also highly suggest getting Araki by Araki, a compilation done by him of his favorite works. There is also a documentary based on him called Arakimentary that gives a true look at what kind of person he is. I first heard of him from my art teacher, browsed the local book stores, and was amazed. Above all, he wants to have fun and challenge convention, but doesn't give his art any esoteric meaning. His work is very controversial, but by todays decency standards in America, is very tame. His work includes traditional portraits, capturing the playfulness of children, architecture of Tokyo as it was developing post-war, flowers distorted to look like abominations, the sex scene of the early 90's, a tribute to his wife after her death from cancer, intimate nude portraits of beautiful women, and shots of everyday life in Tokyo.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars your best buy, January 28, 2009

By 

reading guy "reader" (dc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nobuyoshi Araki: Self, Life, Death: Limited Edition (Hardcover)

Most Araki has been published - there is very little new stuff out there. And so whatever books you buy will be redundant. For instance, this book is almost identical in content to the huge Taschen edition also listed. BUT this is far superior in quality. I compared both side by side in a bookstore and I assure you that the reproductions in this edition are far superior - the other one the colors are not consistent. Also, the overall quality of this product - such as the denisty of the page stock and binding, is much better with this book than with Taschen. So, if you're choosing what to buy, I'd suggest this is your best bet.