Customer Reviews

Nobuyoshi Araki: Self, Life, Death: Limited Edition

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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.

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.

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.

For Westerners, Araki's work is largely available only through hefty compilation books like this--his individual projects tend to be published in very limited editions, usually not easily available outside of Japan--and thus, we are left to find the best retrospective of his long and colorful career. I've examined many of the volumes available in the USA and I own a number of them. Typically, they all do something fairly well and have a few other failings, but when I'm introducing Araki to someone, I find that I always reach for this lovely Phaidon edition.

The photographs are rendered beautifully on quality paper in largely format. At 7.5 pounds, this book is no lightweight. The binding is particularly good, which is probably one reason that I enjoy pulling it off the shelf. Sometimes publishers put together massive books like this, but the binding feels like it's going to split at any moment (here I'm thinking of Taschen's edition of Tokyo Lucky Hole).

The organization of the photographs is interesting, although I'm not entirely in love with the concept of Self, Life, and Death. His work is separated into these three themes, but despite reading the introduction carefully, I don't understand why these three concepts and not others were chosen. They seem a bit arbitrary. However, this doesn't diminish the quality of the book - it just makes it a bit more difficult to understand where the photographs fit within Araki's oeuvre.

One thing that the massive Taschen collection does particularly well is that it groups the photographs by project and chronology. That way you can see the work in its context, more easily than with the Phaidon edition. This isn't a huge deal though, because Phaidon's editors help us see new connections in Araki's work that aren't readily perceptible when viewed as more-or-less discrete projects.

Overall, this is a beautifully crafted book filled with a wonderful selection of images, each reproduced to Phaidon's usual high standards. If you were going to buy a single Araki volume, I would definitely recommend this.

YO! This guy's art sense is out of this world! Give me a camera. I can take some mad pics of naked women all tied up! Highly recommended.