The works of Nobuyoshi Araki have always been met with divided audiences, as naysayers denounce his photographs and label them dehumanising towards women. Conversely, fans continue to praise the artist for his pornographic portraits depicting kinbaku – the Japanese term for rope bondage, a practise made popular in the 15th century. The theme sits well with the rest of Araki’s work, playing perfectly into his narrative of mythical monsters and bound genitalia. Despite criticism from appalled media outlets and attempts at censorship, these shocking photos have secured his place in the canon of iconoclastic image makers. Here, we take a look at ten of the photographer’s most controversial works in celebration of his monographic exhibition at London’s Hamiltons Gallery.
“woman is photography… women teach you how the world goes around.” - Araki
1. “kekkai”, 2010
Typically, bondage is understood as synonymous with pornography. Since 1979 however, Araki’s artistic interpretations of erotic scenes have elevated kinbaku into an art form that is consumed by mainstream audiences.
2. “ARAKISM”
Araki’s images juxtapose cultural heritage and highly eroticised, intimate scenes of BDSM sexual play. His oeuvre challenges conservative attitudes in Japan where the artist’s compulsion for capturing kinbaku is, in his words, a way to “free [the women’s] souls by tying up their bodies.”
“I tie women’s bodies up because I know their souls can’t be tied. Only the physical self can be tied” – Nobuyoshi Araki
3. “Shino”, 2000
The photographer’s subjects do, however, occasionally wear traditional Japanese dress. Many of his photographs also draw on the nation’s mythical monsters, which are often seen terrorising Japanese cities in Kaiju (strange beast) films.
4. “Kekkai”, 2010-2014
Araki is far from shy when it comes to turning the camera on himself, and nothing is too intrusive or off-limits for the artist. Referencing the Japanese literary genre shishosetsu – or “I-novel” – in his self-portraits, the artist has famously labelled these books as “the closest thing there is to photography.”
5. “kekkai”, (2010 – 2014)
An extension of his carnal fascination with women, flowers represent female anatomy in many of Araki’s photographs. The artist has expressed his beliefs, stating: “There is the bud and the flower… The flowers are genital.” Araki’s photo book “Flowers in Ruins” reflects this point of view and is fecund with images of rotting flowers and fruit coupled with abstracted body parts.
6. “ARAKISM”
For Araki, “woman is photography… women teach you how the world goes around.” The artist developed his practice in a booming post-war Japan, a time when photojournalism and art photography were going through enormous social and economic transformations. Araki was a major figure in this movement, as he sought to memorialise Japanese traditions as well as modern scenes from Karaoke bars and the streets of Tokyo.
7. “TOKYO SELF DIARY”, 1986
Araki has always been one for demystifying and destroying taboos. Wielding his camera, the photographer’s works unearth and magnify the arousal that is shielded by what he refers to as “Japan’s ambiguous censorship laws.”
8. “Marvellous Tales of Black Ink”, 1994
When commenting on Japan’s pornography censorship laws, the artist said, “There may be a strict law on censorship, but you can still find anything and everything in Japan… Rigid strictness co-exists with the glamour of deviant opportunities.”
9. “67 Shooting Back (GDN038)”, 2007
Araki’s deviant style has afforded him notoriety in the fashion world, where he recently shot Bottega Veneta’s SS15 campaign and has influenced Alexander McQueen, Simone Rocha and Christopher Kane.
10. “Tokyo Comedy”, 1997
“Eros”, the Greek word for “desire”, is the essence of Nobuyoshi Araki’s oeuvre. From the kinbaku models to his sexually suggestive flowers, he has dedicated a life to documenting the women he believes to possess “all the charms of life itself….” To some, his work represents an obscene compulsion, and to others, an act of moral pornography.
“Araki” is on display at London’s Hamiltons Gallery until 22 November 2016