LIFE, 1972 - 1973

Hong Kong 2016
LIFE

Taka Ishii Gallery

Photography
Gelatin silver print
24.3 x 28.9 (厘米)
9.6 x 11.4 (吋)
Nobuyoshi Araki (1940-) is a Tokyo-based photographer. Receiving high acclaim since the 1970s for photographic works that portray an exceedingly intimate relationship between him and the female subjects he captures, Araki has established his very own world of photography that permeates with an intense air of Eros and Thanatos through images such as those of alluring flowers, kinbaku (bondage) nudes, skyscapes, food, the streets of Tokyo, and his cat. He has continued to vigorously publish over 450 books of his works, and has simultaneously held numerous exhibitions both throughout Japan and abroad. Araki is recognized internationally as one of the leading figures of post-war Japanese photography. “LIFE” is a work consisting of a series of images that capture the landscapes of Tokyo, photographed between 1972 when Araki left the advertising agency Dentsu to become a freelance photographer, and the following year. Inspired by the likes of Eugène Atget and Walker Evans, Araki’s lens is turned towards the city within these photographs, and while in marked contrast to his works of the same period featuring female figures, demonstrates Araki’s extraordinary talent and ability to work with a diverse rage of subjects. The same work was published as a photobook in 1984 under the title, Tokyo, in Autumn.