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Nobuyoshi ARAKI - 1997 Tokyo Comedy
Old Authentic Original Drawing Offset Print
Beautiful Famous photo!
Print size: 23 cm x 33.4 cm
This is a print that the printer had archived as a reference model and laminated to a support so that it can be preserved over time.
A wonderful testimony to traditional art printing which has completely disappeared today.
Remarkable large print, close to a photograph, very bright and contrasted, with beautiful density black.
Its rendering as well as its sharpness, its definition with sharp details, and its shine, are absolutely magnificent.
Print made in 2004 by a former art printer - Printer archive model two-tone printing enhanced with a glossy varnish
This unpublished print was found deep in an assembly workshop in the archive lockers of a former art printing house, carefully preserved flat and protected from light in an envelope. Although it is old with its 19 years of age, it remains in a good state of conservation. Presence of traces of dirt and marks on the back due to manipulations by the printer. However, the front is intact, in perfect condition and of remarkable shine.
This copy was kept by the printer to serve as references for its calibration and coloring on the machine during reprints.
This photograph from 1997 is taken from his series “Tokyo Comedy”, of which he seeks the original core, at the center of life, being one of his fundamental impulses of his artistic quest, a woman with plastic forms.
A spontaneous photograph, mixed with a very modest sensuality, it is a naked woman with a milky body, very erect, who has just stripped herself naked for the photographer, she is more than a woman, she is a moment on herself, a short moment, far from conventional, pornographic or artistic nudes, Araki marks a break in the framing which refers to an amateur photograph, a quick image.
For him, a good image is above all a composition, light, pose and colors so that his lens can bite into bare flesh and settle on white skin, made transparent by carefully studied lighting, it is the search for an elegant balance, introducing an element of mystery, of ambiguity, close to an ancient role-playing game.
“If my photography is erotic, it’s because the model is. » Araki
The woman occupies a central position in Araki's photographic universe, more than a muse, she is a kind of spiritual guide, a powerful and mysterious being who leads her in a quest for the feminine essence, both carnal and abstract. Araki strips his models, ties them up, transforms them into objects of desire capable of maintaining an independence that is as mysterious as it is elusive.
“Women particularly interest me because they are mysterious and sometimes treacherous. Sometimes madonnas, sometimes prostitutes. They have so many complex aspects that they never bore me. So if I continue to photograph, it will always be women. » Araki
He is not only a photographer who takes out his camera in search of snapshots on the run, he also uses it for carefully considered shots, by making his life a visual performance, he is capable of being one or the other or mix the two profiles.
Araki since the 1990s has been composing series which are never finished, while creating new series, without respite, he adds other photos to the old ones, because his philosophy is that everyday images are alike, equal. are micro events that deserve to be reproduced.
Balancing between modern frankness and ancient poetry, his photos revive Japanese sexuality, an essential part of his outlook on the world. Whether he captures the iconic power of a woman's body or a flower, whether he steals the image of a face from the streets of Tokyo or whether he captures the intensity of a sky in black and white, each time it is a double of himself that he produces.
“When I trigger the shutter, I accumulate points which, together, reflect an inner lifeline. » Araki
He does not limit himself to film, but it remains predominant in his shots, he uses at the same time, Pentax 6x7 and Leica. Black and white as well as color photography at 24X36 or polaroid, in automatic mode, with flash, allowing rapid work, industrial development, a disengagement of its photographic production, which gets carried away and grants it the possibility of restoring its life in thin and regular slices.
“My photos are my diary, that’s all. And every photo is nothing other than the representation of a single day. And this single day contains both the past and the projection of the future. » Araki
He is not the only photographer to work on these bases, photographers like Robert Frank have already paved the way. But Araki brings its specificity to the genre, desire is a powerful driving force in its production, sexuality and the city are treated in the same way as the rest of social behavior.
At Araki, photographic quality pays homage to beauty at the same time it transforms any object into a strange universe, the bodies transformed by their poses, suspend a reading of the image. Like his photographs of buildings and flowers which are perfectly in the same line, sensual, sexual, oscillating between metaphor and literality of sex.
He produces underground photographs, raw series which act more as a revealer of a sordid reality than as material for fantasies. Pushing the limits ever further, he is regularly subject to censorship by the Japanese authorities. In 1992, one of his exhibitions deemed obscene had to close and he was sentenced to a significant fine. A few months later, the gallery owners who sold his work “Erotos” were also arrested for disturbing public order and obscenity.
“My own memory disappears at the very moment I take the photo, it is the camera that serves as my memory. » Araki
“Photography, by definition, is about revealing oneself to oneself. » Araki
Nobuyoshi Araki (1940) Japanese photographer, born in Tokyo. His father, a small craftsman, practices photography as an amateur. In 1963 he graduated from the engineering department of Chiba University, majoring in photography and film directing. He becomes a cameraman and practices taking images. He began his photographic career at the Dentsū advertising agency where he met his future wife. In 1964, he received the Taiyō Prize for “Satchin”, a series of photographs of children. In 1971, he married Aoki Yōko and produced a personal diary which he published at his own expense, the “Sentimental Journey” recounting, halfway between reality and fiction, his marriage as well as his wedding night, without any modesty. In 1972, he left the Dentsū agency, became an independent photographer and embarked on several projects. It is from this moment, during a performance, the “Super-Photo concert”, the photos taken from this series are photocopied and sent by post to chosen recipients. At the same time, he produced another series of photographs which stood out for the distortions he brought to his photos, the prints being made at very high temperature, then cooled and hung outside. Giving a result of transformation by light as well as bad weather, his photos as the photographer understands are the product of the present time, he indicates the date on each of them, thus signifying that the photo is a moment of the present, between the past and the future.
In 1974, he founded the “Workshop” school of photography with Fukase Masahisa, Tōmatsu Shōmei, Hosoe Eikō and Moriyama Daidō. In 1977, he moved to Komae in the western suburbs of the capital and in 1982 moved again to Gōtokuji where he has resided ever since. As a child, marked by Tokyo under the bombings at the age of 5, he published a series of photos this time from Tokyo. In 1978 he made a series of black and white photographs of his wife on a daily basis, who undoubtedly became his muse, the work was entitled “Waga ai, Yoko” (Yoko, my love). In 1979, he went to New York for the first time for an exhibition. In 1981, he produced “Shashin shosetsu”, a kind of black and white, sentimental and erotic photo novel and continued in 1984 with two other works, “Shojo sekai” (A world of girls) and “Tokyo wa aki” ( Autumn in Tokyo). But it was not until 1985 that he began to exhibit regularly abroad. Between 1988 and 1993, his work was the subject of scandal, the representation of genitals and pubic hair in his photographs being considered "obscene" within the meaning of Japanese law. The various controversies which follow contribute to a more tolerant application of the law in the case of artistic productions and soft porn. At the end of the 1980s, he used color photocopying as a means of reproduction and presentation for his images.
In 1990, his wife Yōko died of uterine cancer. This personal drama will terribly affect him, his work takes a turn of sensitive darkness for several years. In 2004, he published a book “Love Hotel” where he explained his way of working, exposing the situations that pushed him to photograph naked women. In 2008 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent surgery which successfully removed the tumor. The same year he received the “Decoration for Science and Art” in Austria.
Today, recognized among the greatest photographers, his works are present among numerous museum collections, such as the “Tate Modern” in London and the “Museum of Modern Art” in San Francisco.
Having published over 400 books, Araki is considered one of the most prolific photographers in Japan and around the world. He is also a figure in the world of media and Japanese culture, publishing numerous essays and interviews.
“Photography is life, everyday life is an art. » Araki
Sale as is, no return.
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thanks a lot to the following photographers
Edward Weston
Daido Moriyama
Araki
Josef Koudelka
Saul Leiter
Ray K Metzker
Paolo Roversi
Helmut Newton,
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Ernst Haas
Harry Gruyaert
Annie Leibovitz
Peter Lindbergh
Guy Bourdin
Richard Avedon
Herb Ritts,
Ellen Von Unwerth
Comme des Garçons
Rei Kawakubo
Irving Penn,
Bruce Weber,
Edward Steichen,
George Hoyningen-Huene,
Hiro,
Erwin Blumenfeld
Bruce Weber,
Alex Webb
Robert Frank
Issey Miyake
Robert Doisneau
Steve Hiett
Gueorgui Pinkhassov
Andy Warhol
Yayoi Kusama
Magnum photos
Harry Callahan
Andre Kertesz
Elliott Erwitt
Bruce Davidson
Guy Bourdin
Steven Meisel,
Martin Munkacsi
Mario Giacomelli
Bruce Gilden
Sebastiao Salgado