Yakuza, 1994

Nobuyoshi Araki has attracted a lot of attention around the world for his choice of photographic subjects and because of the artistic merits of his photography. His love of photography and Polaroids began when he was at infant school in Japan and he later studied film and photography at Chiba University. He became a leading Japanese artist after receiving the Taiyo Award in 1964 for his photography project about a boy called Satchin. His art has been heavily influenced by the rapid growth of commercialism and urbanization in Japan, which started in the decades following the end of World War Two. Many of his images also provide visual references to Japanese history and traditions. Street scenes, flowers, bondages, food, faces and Araki’s cat feature in much of his art, and the female body in Japanese bondage, representing sex and death, is a major theme in his work. More recently he has photographed female musicians such as Bjork and Lady Gaga. Nobuyoshi Araki has published many books of photography documenting his everyday life. He photographed his wife on their honeymoon and continued to use her image during their married life. Two of his published collections, Sentimental Journey (1971) and Winter Journey (1991), show images of his wife at the start of their marriage and in the final days before her death. Many of Araki’s photographs (Polaroids especially ) have been exhibited internationally in solo exhibitions and at contemporary art shows. His work is now included in major collections of modern photography and in permanent displays at a number of contemporary art museums. (Artist website)