Lady Gaga (Bondage)

Nobuyoshi Araki was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1940. In 1963, Araki completed his studies at Chiba University’s Department of Photography, Painting and Engineering with a focus on the study of film and photography. Upon graduation, Araki began working for the advertising firm Dentsu while pursuing an independent photographic practice. In 1964, Araki was awarded the first Taiyo magazine prize for his photographic work “Satchin”, a series which served as the basis for his 1965 debut solo exhibition, “Satchin and his brother Mabo”. From 1970, Araki began the self-publication and distribution of a series of “Xerox” books and the following year published the landmark, “Sentimental Journey”, featuring intimate images of his wife Yoko from the couple’s honeymoon.

Two years later, following his departure from Dentsu in 1972, Araki along with contemporaries Daido
Moriyama, Shomei Tomatsu, Eikoh Hosoe, Masahisa Fukase and Noriaki Yokosuka, established the Workshop Photography School. From the latter part of the 1970’s onwards, Araki began the publication of then and still controversial nude photographs as well as his prolific writings. In 1991, “Sentimental Journey - Winter’s Journey” was released. The publishing of this book – which documented the illness and death of Yoko by cancer the previous year - marked a decisive turning point in Araki’s life and career.

From 1992, a series of domestic and international institutional exhibitions served to familiarize a wider
audience with Araki’s practice both in and outside Japan. A selection of these exhibitions includes “Akt-Tokyo:1971-1991” (Graz, Austria, touring Europe, 1992-1995), “Tokyo Comedy” (Vienna Secession, Vienna, Austria) and “Araki Retrographs” (Hara Museum, Tokyo) - both 1997. Following Araki’s debut solo museum exhibition “Sentimental photography, sentimental life” (1999) at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, The Barbican, London, presented the retrospective, “Nobuyoshi Araki: Self, Life, Death” (2005). Subsequent exhibitions include, “TOKYO JINSEI” mounted by the Edo Tokyo Museum (2006), “Araki Gold”, presented by l’Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica - Palazzo Fontana di Trevi, Rome, Italy (2007) and “The Faces of Japan" Project HIROSHIMA by Nobuyoshi Araki”, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima (2009). Over the course of a career spanning 45 years, Araki has published over 350 books. In 2008, Araki was awarded the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Arts.