Nobuyoshi Araki is a contemporary Japanese photographer known both for his prolific output and his erotic imagery. While sometimes focusing on quotidian subject matter, including flowers or street scenes, it is Araki’s sexual imagery that has elicited controversy and fascination. Similar to the work of Helmut Newton, Araki often addresses subversive themes—such as Japanese bondage kinbaku—in his provocative depictions of female nudes. “Women? Well, they are gods. They will always fascinate me. As for rope, I always have it with me. Even when I forget my film, the rope is always in my bag,” he said of his subject matter. “Since I can’t tie their hearts up, I tie their bodies up instead.” Born on May 25, 1940 in Tokyo, Japan, he studied photography at Chiba University, before pursuing a career as a commercial photographer upon his graduation in 1963. In 1970, while working as a freelance photographer, he began to publish numerous photography books, including Sentimental Journey (1971), a visual narrative of the honeymoon with his wife Aoki Yoko.
As a young man, Nobuyoshi Araki created an intimate series of images documenting the early years of his marriage, entitled My Wife Yoko (1967-1976). Many years on, at the onset of his wife’s terminal illness, Araki’s Winter Journey (1989/90) diaristically recorded their final years together. In Sentimental Journey/Winter Journey, both of these series are combined in a hardcover slipcase.
This is a photobook by Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki. The publication is split into two parts. The first one, titled ‘Sentimental Journey’, presents images of Araki and his wife during their honeymoon trip immediately after their wedding. The second one, ‘Winter Journey’, is a chronicle of his wife’s final days before her passing away. Despite Araki’s fame for depicting erotic pictures, this photobook offers a personal dimension of his photographic practice and gives a touch of intimate affect to the reader.
The Images Collection 