Nobuyoshi Araki

Nobuyoshi Araki was born 1940 in Tokyo, and after graduating from Chiba University’s Department of Photography, Printing and Engineering, he joined the photography department at the advertising firm Dentsu. In 1964, he received the inaugural Taiyo Prize for “Satchin,” and in 1971, he self-published Sentimental Journey, a record of his honeymoon trip with his wife Yoko, releasing only a 1000 copies. He went on to establish a unique photographic world whose wide-ranging subjects – sensuous flowers, rope-bound nudes, skyscapes, food, streets of Tokyo, his pet cat – strongly exuded Eros and Thanatos, winning high regard at home and abroad as one of the leading Japanese photographers. Notable exhibitions include “Sentimental Journey 1971–2017–”, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (2017); “Araki”, Musée Guimet, Paris (2016); “Ōjō Shashū: Photography for the Afterlife – Faces, Skyscapes, Roads”, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi (2014); “Nobuyoshi Araki Photobook Exhibition: Arākī”, Izu Photo Museum, Shizuoka (2012); “NOBUYOSHI ARAKI: Self, Life, Death”, Barbican Art Gallery, London (2005); “Suicide in Tokyo”, Giardini di Castello, Venice (2002); “Nobuyoshi Araki”, S.M.A.K., Ghent (2000); “ARAKI Nobuyoshi Sentimental Photography, Sentimental Life”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1999); “Tokyo Comedy”, Wiener Secession, Vienna (1997) and “Journal intime”, Fondation Cartier pour I’art contemporain, Paris (1995). Honors include the Annual Award from the Photographic Society of Japan (1990), the 2nd Oribe Award (1999), the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Arts (2008), the Special Award at the 54th Mainichi Art Award (2012), and the top prize at the 6th Ango Awards (2012).