Bob van Orsouw

Nobuyoshi Araki

The extensive work of the Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki (*1940, resides in Tokyo) possesses a great deal of keyed-up potential. In his works Araki enframes both the intimate and the public by taking on monolithic themes such as eroticism, death or life. This fine-art photographer has in the past also collaborated with other artists, among whom the photographer Nan Goldin or the Icelandic musician Björk. In addition, since the 1960s he has published over five hundred books, most of which were issued in Japan.
Araki became renowned and acclaimed for his nudes. At first glance, these photographs seem disturbing; most of the sparsely clothed women are shown in shackles. The images provide the male gaze—so the rash conclusion—with effortless, passive diversion. What is easily overlooked is that the photographs are not based on coercive situations, but on poses that are voluntarily chosen by the participants. Erotic bondage or “kinbaku” goes as far back historically as the Middle Ages. It has little to do with western forms of bondage, where sexuality is foregrounded. Instead his photographs highlight the aesthetic marvel of the human body. In a 2008 newspaper interview he himself said on his position of power behind the camera: “I can shackle the body of a woman, but not her mind. The bonds become an embrace.”
For his exhibition in Zurich, Araki has produced small-scale B/W photographs, partially overpainted in acrylic. Such a time-consuming and costly procedure seems quite anachronistic in this digital age of image production. But it is through such compositional constellations that he repeatedly succeeds in lending his photos an inexplicable allure.

Stefan Wagner