Photographers

Nobuyoshi Araki (born 1940 in Tokyo) is one of Japan’s most prolific and controversial photographers, known professionally as Arākii. Over a career spanning six decades, he has published more than 500 books and helped redefine the boundaries between fine art, eroticism, and autobiography.

Araki studied film and photography at Chiba University from 1959 to 1963 before working at the major advertising firm Dentsu, where he met his future wife, Yōko Aoki. His early self‑published Xeroxed Photo Albums and his intimate photobook “Sentimental Journey” established the diaristic, confessional style that would become central to his work. After Yōko’s death in 1990, he continued the series with “Winter Journey,” creating one of the most emotionally raw photographic diaries of the 20th century.

Throughout his career, Araki has explored themes of sexuality, kinbaku (Japanese rope bondage), mortality, love, flowers, and the changing city of Tokyo. His autobiographical “I‑photography” connects private life and artistic practice, often blurring the lines between documentation and performance. His work has also included celebrity portraiture, notably of Björk and Lady Gaga.

Araki has received the Niépce Prize (2001) and exhibited internationally at institutions such as Fondation Cartier, Centre Pompidou, the Museum of Sex in New York, the Hara Museum, and many others. His photographs are held in major museum collections worldwide, including Tate, SFMOMA, MoMA, and the Stedelijk Museum. Despite controversy and frequent censorship in Japan, Araki remains one of the most influential figures in contemporary photography.