The oeuvre of the Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki

During the Amsterdam trip, I had an opportunity to visit the Foam Gallery, which displays work of contemporary artists, and painters and photographers were their collaboration target group. Foam is located in the center of Amsterdam in the building numbered 609. The exterior of Foam isn’t very big and I think it is a great space to get lost in and discover new talent. Nobuyoshi Araki is a Japanese photographer. His work was arranged on every floor of Foam gallery. His work made a serious impact on me that is very intimate and personal as I am usually not the biggest fan of photography. First of all, I was interested in is Satchin and his brother Mobo. Araki discovered the dramatic in the utterly banal scenes of life during he was strolling the streets of Tokyo and found the little boys Satchin and Mobo. This became the series of self-portrait that proudly received an award from Taiyo Award. Additionally, the outstanding black and white photography made me feel like I could turn back time and consider how much people grew up since their childhood. Araki took pictures of children’s expression that well presented their own characteristics for instance crying, smiling, wondering and thinking. I could engage the same feeling to overcome those pictures. Apart from that, my favorite picture of this theme work is a group of little boys who act like a ‘gang’ of monkeys. It sincerely showed the merriment of childhood indistinctly found in adult life today. Natural smiles of children encouraged keeping life on going no matter what.

The next Araki’s image is Subway 1972. After the Second World War, many Japanese citizens struggled with the feeling of a lost identity. Araki took pictures of people in the underground, which presented sleeping travellers, bored old men, couples looking in different ways and sometimes people seemed to notice the camera. However, I think they were a sign of the future in the past. In 1972, the life of anonymous individuals still existed. Those pictures from the past distinctly related to life today especially those who lived in the modern metropolis. Thus, the photographs seemed to be a reflection and posed certain existential questions. Apart from the exhibition, I got to know more of his works and found out that most of Araki's photographs appeared sexist, degrading and oppressively fetishistic. I thought his works were too sexual. I think they discouraged attention of observing and participating in arts. I would say, the vivid colors and postures of naked ladies seemed to give fairly advantages of learning about structures, colors and compositions but nonetheless, I think this category of works didn’t profoundly give much sense of art but rather caused deviant behaviors of people to trigger sexual reactions. I knew that Araki had more than 40 years of experience capturing women in various states of undress according to observer fro example women are doused in paint. Sometimes they are laid bare on household furniture. They're trussed in rope, partly covered by traditional robes, hung awkwardly from the ceiling and the models look consenting to take photo. Therefore, Araki might get used to these sorts of thing but I believed it's still hardly everyone's cup of tea that openly accepted sexuality as real art.

From the several of his works, I considered that Nobuyoshi Araki loves taking photos of everyday situations. The photos are as if they came from his diary. I believed the camera is likely his close friend of everyday life because he took numerous photographs of mundane moments, something that common people would not necessarily capture. Therefore, Araki wasn’t ordinary taking photo but his works contained concepts themselves. He wants the audiences to see not only the photos but also the understandable reason through form of his photo collection. For my personal feeling, I sometimes have been less interested in what I see as being trivial elements of photography, composition, technical details, and even subject matter to an extent. Thus, the importance in a photographer’s work is not what the photographer actually photographs, but rather what that work says about them and how honest the photographer is about what they are photographing and Araki is the person who did that and it blew my mind. To this day I have not seen work of photographs so honest like this before and personally concerned as Araki’s Sentimental Journey. I thought that he is the person who is not only good at sexual photography but also his entire repertoire works well as a mixture of many different themes always surprising people.

The photographs are something that meaningful and worth for people life and these passions are influenced from Yoko, his wife. Araki thinks that he became a real photographer when he met Yoko and she brought true love to his life and lastly, she is the lady who he married. Araki started capturing his wife during their honeymoon.

He simply presented it as a personal diary. He recorded every manner and expressive moments that show various themes such as loss, love, happiness, passion, fear, sadness, sorrow, death, celebration, acceptance and isolation. The sequence of pictures presented a cohesive and structure narrative. He named this collection Sentimental Journey, Winter Journey. I ought to be the series of love first time I looked at them but eventually, how terribly sad it is to see a loved one become ill and pass away afterwards. The feelings of loss and emptiness interpenetrate the lives of those who remain and who often see each other everyday. It seems that the point end of human was suffering and pain.

Still to this day, I find this work so enlivened and emotionally moving. More recently I have been considering the image appear continually after Yoko’s death that is a photograph which show the last time they hold hands. I went back to look this image over and over again. I could imagine a man who has just lost his wife. I could feel his determination of photograph and reality. He utterly kept every Yoko moments surrounds him though photography and the photographs say nothing but they reveal everything honestly. Last but not least, the death seems to be the beginning of another journey. Eastern sky is another Araki’s display series as hope and faith. I sense that he is starting to accept the loss of his wife and saying his final goodbye to Yoko. The balcony of Araki’s house in Tokyo is a recurring element in his photography. This place used to be oasis where are Araki and Yoko enjoy the outdoors together and relax. After Yoko passed away in 1990, Araki often photographs the Tokyo sky from his balcony. The sky is relevant to freedom, openness and heaven. Although, this can be considered as lighting case study of Araki but in fact, his sky photographs gave an expression and potentiality. They seem to be more meaningful in term of anticipation to meet somebody.

However, Araki has a various style of photography. I observed a lot from his works especially sentimental journey is one that stands out as my favorite photography out to date. The feature of his photographs is not what people could just take but rather can give the meanings, some of works seem to be a projection as the past presents future and majority sincerely convey the story to the audiences and that was numerously successful for Araki who can make people appreciated his intentionality.