PREVIEW Foam Magazine Issue #40 After Araki

AfteR

ARAki

h e av e n & hell

After Araki

1

Araki

65

Nomura Sakiko

25

Preface

81

Momo Okabe

26

Introduction

38

Essay: Araki

49

Mayumi Hosokura

105 Azuma Makoto

113 Essays: Feustel, Goto, Lederman, Vartanian

167 Colophon

209 Daifu Motoyuki

169 HIROMIX

243 177 Emi Anrakuji

255 256 257 Araki

Content

193 Lieko Shiga

Foam is honoured to present a selection of contemporary Japanese photographers whose work is distinctively affected and influenced by the legacy of Nobuyoshi Araki (b. 1940, Japan). A panel of inter­ national specialists generously advised Foam magazine on the formation of the issue, with some of them also appearing as guest authors.

Araki is considered one of the most controversial photographers of our time: in Japan he’s an emblematic phenomenon that can’t be ignored by anyone who’s into photography. This celebrated master is the inspiration and starting point for the 40th issue of Foam magazine which opens with an extensive portfolio from his newest series, qaRaDiSe. But what comes afterwards?

Araki qARADISE

1

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After ArAki Heaven & Hell Many people will be aware that Japan has an extra­ ordinarily rich and long photographic tradition; indeed its importance in the history of photography is hard to overstate. in the twentieth century, espe­ cially after the Second World War, Japan produced countless photographers whose work amply rewards investigation. Some are barely known, if at all, beyond Japan and a limited number of photography enthusiasts, while others are familiar to a broader public and have found their way into the canon of international photography. Nobuyoshi Araki and Daido Moriyama undoubtedly belong in this latter category. they are the great icons of post­war Japanese photography, with an immense oeuvre that is continuing to expand and a huge and conti­ nuing influence on the photographers around them. in the world of Japanese photography they have such a powerful presence that every photo­ grapher coming after them has had to relate to them in some way. even the decision to break loose and follow a path of your own is indirectly shaped by their power and significance.

for their efforts and the knowledge they provided. it would have been impossible without them to have created an issue anything like the one you now have in your hands. foam would also like to thank Galerie Alex Daniëls / reflex, Amsterdam. the exhibition in foam of work

by Nobuyoshi Araki could not have been held without our close and exceptionally good co­operation with them. their knowledge, advice and mediation were essential to making the exhibition what it is. Our collaboration also led to the publication of one of Araki’s latest series, called qARADISe, which is literally folded around all the other portfolios and texts.

See that as more than a metaphor.

Marloes krijnen editor­in­Chief

inspired by the major exhibition ARAKI – OjO ShAShu: PhOtOgRAPhy fOR the AfteRlIfe: AlluRIng hell, which can be seen in foam from December 2014 onwards, the editors of fOAm mAgAzIne wondered whether it might be possible to make something of that influence visible. What would be the result if we brought to­ gether work by a variety of Japanese photographers, each of whom has a unique relationship with Araki?

Might it be possible to make a captivating issue of fOAm mAgAzIne from that starting point, an issue that would cast a fresh light on the iconic master?

Preface

to answer that question we did not investigate for ourselves but asked several proven experts on Japanese photography to name Japanese photogra­ phers who have created work that shows the influence of Araki, whether direct or indirect, concrete or subtle. We were naturally excited to see what they would come up with. What would Simon Baker (tate Modern, London), Marc feustel (eyecurious, Paris), Shigeo Goto (G/P Gallery, tokyo), russet Lederman (iCP, New York), and ivan Vartanian (Goliga, tokyo) suggest? You can find out in this special issue, AfteR ARAKI – heAven & hell. Of course we had to make a selection from the many names put forward. We are grateful to all the international experts who were consulted and took the trouble to send us names, and in many cases short descrip­ tions to go with them. We are extremely grateful

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After Araki

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26

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Introduction

by Marcel Feil

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From the series AllurIng hEll, 2008 © Nobuyoshi Araki, courtesy of the artist

After Araki

Even though nobuyoshi Araki has published more than 450 photobooks in his long career, he remains an enigma. his insatiable, even obsessive working methods seem to nourish the mercurial nature of his art. Araki takes pleasure in eluding definitions by continually moving on new encounters, new possibilities and new work. In fact he is always on the move, living and exploring the experience of the hereand-now to the fullest extent, defying the cruelty of time and with it the inevitability of death.

‘If I didn’t have photography,’ nobuyoshi Araki has said, ‘I’d have absolutely nothing.

My life is all about photography, and so life itself is photography.’ Araki’s art overflows with life, and his life is awash with images.

Since he started his photographic career in the mid-sixties he has taken many tens of thousands of photographs. they are personal, disinterested, posed, random, accidental, prurient, erotic, anarchistic, touching, vulgar, lascivious, lurid and sentimental. the cumulative effect is overwhelming. his art is all about movement and restlessness, even though he relentlessly returns to the same fixations, particularly women.

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for some, because of those depictions of women, Araki is beyond the pale. he shows women in kimonos bound and suspended in Japanese rope bondage (Kinbaku), women’s bodies smeared with what appears to be blood (but is in fact paint), women masturbating, women with lipstick and cigarettes, women with plastic dinosaurs and lizards. the women look at the man behind the camera, and their gaze reaches us. It is often a look of severity, as if the spectator is really the one being objectified.

Although frequently condemned as pornographic or obscene, Araki’s images of women are objective and detached, hardly ever truly erotic or disturbing. What we see is the complicit ménage à trois of photographer, model and camera, a kind of ritualised theatre of objectification in an endless stream of images. their importance lies not so much in the photographic image as in the photographic act itself. the pressing of the shutter has become an existential ritual. the nature of a ritual, its essence, is the fact that it has to be executed, over and over again, without too many questions being asked. By executing

Araki has brought himself to a stage of life where the photographic act is sufficient: ‘I am determined to solve everything just by taking a photograph. I don’t know how they will turn out, but while looking through the viewfinder, I really thought they looked good.’

With the photographic act turned into an existential ritual, the persona of the artist cannot remain unaddressed. Araki has been described as a pornographer, a monster, a genius, a dirty old man and much else besides. he has called himself most of these things, too, and makes much of his persona as a somewhat cartoonish, priapic little devil with upbeat energy, signature hairstyle and glasses. And as is always the case with Araki, you can’t tell the true from the false, frivolity

If what strikes one first about Araki is his frightening energy, it is matched by his inventiveness and generosity as an imagemaker. Just about every technical expedient possible is played out, with the exception of digital photography, whose truthfulness Araki mistrusts. he is much concerned with authenticity, yet his work is also full of plays on what is real and what is not, what is staged and what has been discovered, as is evident in the creative way he re-contextualises his past, and reworks images to bring them to life in new ways. this becomes all too evident in his latest series of diptychs that brings together two contrasting kinds of photography, both of them fundamental to a proper understanding of Araki’s artistry. next to the exuberant, colourful images of naked women in which a meticulous staging proclaims his detachment from the world, Araki positioned images of a very different nature, images addressing his private life, presented in soft grey tones and mostly focusing on his beloved tokyo balcony. the balcony and his choice of black-andwhite photography immediately bring to mind a collection of photographs little known to most of his potential audience, but nonetheless at the core of Araki’s life and work. In 1971 his little self-published

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Perseverance in the Face of Death

From the series AllurIng hEll, 2008 © Nobuyoshi Araki, courtesy of the artist

the ritualized photographic act without prejudice and without morals, fully living the hereand-now, Araki has created a body of work that to him eventually becomes a mandala, a highly stylized model of the world containing both good and evil, light and darkness, emphasising the endless cycle of life and death.

from deep insight or humour from sincerity. he remains an untouchable spirit, a shaman who in the end can only exorcize his deepest fears by performing the photographic ritual.

Only by ritually distancing himself and keeping life at an arm’s length can he truly relate to reality and, eventually, reconcile life and death.

Araki has cre

After Araki

of work th

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eventually a mandala, a h model of t containing bo evil, light an emphasising cycle of life

eated a body

hat to him

oth good and nd darkness, g the endless e and death.

Perseverance in the Face of Death

y becomes highly stylized the world

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From the series SEntIMEntAl JOurnEY / SPrIng JOurnEY, 2010 © Nobuyoshi Araki, courtesy of the artist

After Araki

book SeNtIMeNtAl JourNey showed a series of photographs he took recording his wedding and honeymoon with his beloved Yoko Aoki.

Exactly twenty years later a sequel was published, also in black-and-white, SeNtIMeNtAl JourNey/WINter JourNey in which he presented further photographs of the honeymoon along with a later series that documents Yoko’s illness and death in 1990. Araki’s eye never flinched as he photographed his own hand in Yoko’s, his shadow before him as he carried flowers to her room the day she died, her bones on a gurney after the cremation. Afterwards Araki spent a year photographing the tokyo skies unfurling beyond his balcony, with Yoko’s cat at the window next to him.

March 2010 saw another decisive event in the life of nobuyoshi Araki. his beloved cat Chiro, originally given to Yoko Aoki by her mother in 1988, was nearing the end of her life. Araki movingly describes Chiro’s ability to transform the lifeless world he inhabited following Yoko’s death into Eden. Simply by being there, Chiro was able to make his balcony, which ‘had turned into ruin’, into something resembling an Eden.

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After another twenty-year interval, a third SeNtIMeNtAl JourNey has now been published: SeNtIMeNtAl JourNey/SprINg JourNey. the entire SeNtIMeNtAl JourNey trilogy contains only carefully considered black-and-white photographs. the choice not to use colour for these very private and personal occasions seems to emphasize one of the characteristics of photography, which is to engrave an occasion into our memory. the lack of colour immediately makes the photograph into an artefact showing something that inescapably belongs to the past, an image of loss. these images cut right through to the essence of bereavement, nostalgia and loneliness. they are not aimed at keeping the world at a distance, instead they represent an attempt to connect with a world irretrievably lost.

With the loss of his loved ones, Araki’s balcony has beens turned into a sanctuary to the memory of his wife and his cat. In these images, that personal space, although still redolent of happier times, has become a wasteland inhabited and patrolled by plastic dinosaurs. the dinosaur – at once fascinating, predatory and fabled – has long been recognized as

ArAkI – oJo ShAShu: photogrAphy For the AFterlIFe,

a title based on the influential book of Japanese Buddhism oJoyoShu of 985, in which heaven and hell are described. oJoyoShu inspires Araki in his existential photographic exploration of life (sex) and Death. Starting in mid-December, foam will present an exhibition specially compiled for the museum that can be seen as a stand-alone element of that extraordinary triptych. Its title also speaks volumes: ArAkI – oJo ShAShu: photogrAphy For the AFterlIFe: AllurINg hell.

the exhibition at foam will include the recent series qArADISe, published for the first time in this issue of foam Magazine. In it Araki returns to what might be called one of his recurring themes, the flower arrangement.

But compared to the flowers that Araki has photographed in the past, the bouquets in qArADISe are less voluptuous and generally lack any immediate, undeniable erotic power. the light is more flat, the bouquets are

Perseverance in the Face of Death

this is all the more the case now that Araki has reached a venerable age himself and is in the autumn of his life. this phase is inevitably accompanied by physical impairments, such as the recently much reduced sight in his right eye. Araki immediately turned this inconvenience, so troubling to a photographer, into a new series of works entitled love oN the leFt eye, a fairly direct reference to the book love oN the leFt BANk (1954) by Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken, which was a great source of inspiration in its day for the young Araki. In response to his impaired vision, Araki presented a series of prints of which the right half is completely obscured with black marker pen, an intervention both simple and effective that creates a powerful new image in which the polarity so essential to Araki’s work, and the constant battle between life and death, is given a new form.

Other series that Araki has worked on recently also show evidence of his consciousness

of the merciless effects of time and the inevitability of the approaching end. Over the past three years he has put together three exhibitions in Japan that can be seen as one large triptych. their combined title says it all:

From the series SEntIMEntAl JOurnEY / SPrIng JOurnEY, 2010 © Nobuyoshi Araki, courtesy of the artist

Araki’s alter ego. While Araki himself is not present in these black-and-white images, the toy dinosaurs that populate the scene serve to show the indelible, inescapable nature of memory.

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After Araki

the consta between life is given a n

Paradise see been transf a murky, he of violence

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Perseverance in the Face of Death

tant battle e and death, new form. ems to have formed into ellish place and decay.

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consistently photographed against a deep black background and they are inhabited by severely damaged dolls, apparently made of porcelain, stuck in between the flowers.

All are either cracked, broken, missing limbs or smeared with red paint. Paradise seems to have been transformed into a murky, hellish place of violence and decay. this reversal is reinforced by the spelling of paradise, its first letter consistently in lower case and reversed: the p is now a q. the astonishing audacity in evidence here and the powerful juxtaposition of two strategies for dealing with reality, for being able to move seemingly without effort between the private and the public, the intimate and the bold and the documented and staged, between life and death, now and then, good and evil, light and dark and heaven and hell, emphasize not only the enormous and inevitable force of death that has been decisive for most of Araki’s work but most of all reassert his insatiable will to live and to persevere in the face of death. this text is partly based on a text written by Marcel feil in: NoBuyoShI ArAkI. It WAS oNce A pArADISe. reflex Editions Amsterdam (2011). the exhibition ArAkI oJo ShAShu – photogrAphy For the AFterlIFe:

After Araki

AllurINg hell can be visited at foam from December 19, 2014 until March 11, 2015. this exhibition has been realised in close collaboration with galerie Alex Daniëls / reflex Amsterdam.

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nOBuYOShI ArAKI (b. 1940, Japan) graduated with a degree in Photography and filmmaking from Chiba university’s faculty of Engineering in 1963 before moving on to work at advertising agency Dentsu. In 1964 he received the first taiyo Award for SAtchIN, a collection of photographs of children in tokyo’s ‘low city’ districts. Since then he has had solo exhibitions in art galleries and museums worldwide, and his works are held in numerous collections including the tate and the San francisco Museum of Modern Art. he has gone on to publish hundreds of books, create films, and collaborate with the likes of nan goldin, Daido Moriyama and Juergen teller. he is known as one of the most radical and controversial photographers of our time.

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Perseverance in the Face of Death

Image from the series qArADISE © Nobuyoshi Araki, courtesy of the artist in collaboration with galerie Alex Daniëls / reflex Amsterdam All images from the series qArADISe © nobuyoshi Araki, courtesy of the artist in collaboration with galerie Alex Daniëls / reflex Amsterdam

After Araki

My Rea

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oR an intRo to land photog

ality,

R, oduction dscape gRaphy

Essay

by Nobuyoshi Araki

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After Araki

a world outside shitamachi’s viewfinder.

MANchuriA, 1940 seems like a world outside a picture. speaking of 1940, it was the year when i, the genius photographer, was born. this photo compilation is like a birthday present for me. compiling Kuwabara’s present private scenes, MANchuriA, 1940 is also my personal scene. When reading the image index, captions appear more like narration.

Kineo Kuwabara’s spirit is still there. i thumbed through FArEwEll PhotogrAPhy and For A lANguAgE to coME again. these are neither landscapes nor dead scenery but private scenes of daido Moriyama and takuma nakahira. 106 StArS and Kishin shinoyama himself are what i call landscapes.

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Mayumi Hosokura Crystal Love Starlight

49

64

Nomura Sakiko Naked Time

65

80

Momo Okabe Bible

81

104

Azuma Makoto Encyclopedia of Flowers: Hybrid

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Encyclopedia of Flowers: Hybrid

112

RussEt LEdERman —

Desire and Portraits of Sexuality as Filtered Through Life and Death

mayumi Hosokura, p. 49

Emi anrakuji, p. 177

Essay

Implicit in these personal depictions is life, sex and death and all that falls in between.

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After Araki

araki’s early works evoke a tender intimacy infused with a pure and painfully beautiful sense of desire.

Poetry and intimacy are everywhere in the work of Nobuyoshi Araki. Surprised by this comment? You shouldn’t be. Araki is a pho­ tographer of many striking paradoxes that at first seem separated by a great divide, but upon closer inspection reveal an inextricable com­ patibility. Whether it’s a quiet black­and­white image of his young wife Yoko asleep on a tatami mat in the hull of a boat or a sexually explicit color image of a bound and naked woman shown in a compromised position, Araki is a photographer who always calls for attention. As a bad boy provocateur, his confron­ tational images often embrace sex and the spectacle of the female body framed within the complementary and op­ posing themes of Eros (sex and life) and Thanatos

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(death). Well knWown in the West for his erotic and by some accounts ‘pornographic’ female nude and still life images, it comes as a surprise to many that Araki’s early works evoke a tender intima­ cy infused with a pure and painfully beautiful sense of desire.

This diversity of content is readily apparent in Araki’s photobooks, which span his prolific 50­year photographic career. With titles such as Sentimental Journey to yoko, my love to in rapture and Chiro, my love, his early photobooks are loving depictions of his pri­ vate desires and the intimacy he shares with those closest to him. Sentimental Journey (1971), an early self­published book, is a tour de force love story that chronicles the early days of his marriage to Yoko

and their honeymoon. The simple white cover frames Araki and Yoko’s traditional wedding photograph. Inside are highly personal black­ and­white images of Yoko: brooding as she sits on the edge of a bed, pensive in a train seat, and engaged in sex on rumpled sheets. In 1991, Araki published Sentimental Journey/Winter Journey , an

extension of the images of Yoko in Sentimental Journey with the addition of Winter Journey, a record of his final years with Yoko prior to her death in 1990. The intimacy and emotional engagement found within this photo­essay evoke a tenderness between the photographer and his muse continually juxtaposed with the ordinariness of the places that surround them: Tokyo streets followed by Araki holding Yoko’s hand in her hospital bed; mundane interiors interwoven with Yoko’s funeral and her flower­ filled casket.

accompanied Sentimental when first self­pub­ lished in 1971:

This is not the Araki of later photobooks with titles like Dirty pretty thingS, Sexual mania and tokyo luCky hole, with women in various stages of undress, legs splayed. This is the Araki who frames ten­ der moments within the rhythms of daily life: a non­ descript 1960s hotel room with an unwatched TV in the corner, a half­eaten snack on a train table, tourists in front of a temple, and bored passengers on a subway.

Everything is quite ordinary.

Yet everything is imbued with emotion. It is Araki regarding his wife, and through her, himself – the Eros and Thana­ tos of their existence together.

As he famously stated in the handwritten insert that

Working outside of the pre­ vailing Provoke aesthetic of the period, many of Araki’s early photographs were first presented within handmade Xerox photobooks made while working at the Dentsu advertising agency. The im­ pact of the personal voice in these initial experiments had a lasting imprint on Araki’s photographic practice, lead­ ing to his embrace of the I­Novel, a self­reflective, con­ fessional form of early 20th century Japanese literature.

Most often associated with Araki’s early and more obvi­ ously autobiographical work, the private and person­ al I­Novel voice can also be found in his entire photo­ graphic oeuvre – even in his provocative nudes and still­ lifes. As a means to portray a realistic view of the world from a first­person perspec­ tive, Araki’s use of the it cannot help but evoke life in all its facets, inseparable from the photographer him­ self. Implicit in these per­ sonal depictions is life, sex and death and all that falls in between.

‘These photographs are total­ ly different from those fake photographs you find all over the place. Sentimental Journey is my love and a photographer’s solution. But I’m not saying that these photos are real just because I took them on my honey­ moon. I made love my point of departure as a photogra­ pher, and it just happened that it all started from a story told in the first person singu­ lar.’ (i-novel)1

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Desire and portraits of Sexuality as Filtered through life and Death

everything is quite ordinary. yet everything is imbued with emotion

Journey

all images from the series iPy © Emi anrakuji, courtesy of the artist and miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, new York EmI anRaKuJI (b. 1963, Japan) originally studied oil painting at musashino university of art in tokyo. since 2001, her work has been exhibited worldwide in numerous solo and group shows, including daegu Photo Biennale, 2008, miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, new York, 2013, and most recently Past Rays, Yokohama, 2014. Her efforts have earned her increasing support from the art community and several important awards, including the prestigious new Photographer award at the 22nd Higashikawa Photography Prize in 2006. she often arranges her work as handmade books, one of which formed the catalyst for iPy (nazraeli Press, 2008).

after araki

RussEt LEdERman (b. 1961, united states) is a media artist, writer and photobook collector who lives in new York City. she teaches media art theory and writing in the mFa art Criticism & Writing program and mFa Computer art department at the school of Visual arts, new York. she regularly writes on photobooks for print and online journals, including the International Center of Photography’s library blog.

Lederman is a co-organiser of the 10x10 PhoTobookS project and has received awards and grants from Prix ars Electronica and the smithsonian american art museum.

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all images from the series CrySTaL Love STarLighT © mayumi Hosokura, courtesy of the artist and G/P Gallery maYumI HosoKuRa (b. 1979, Japan) graduated from the faculty of literature at Ritsumeikan university in 2002 and in 2005 from the Photography department, nihon university, College of art (tokyo). Hosokura was twice shortlisted for the Hitotsubo award for young photographers in 2004 and 2005. Her recent exhibitions include Yokohama Photo Festival, 2010; New/aNoTher FaShioN oF PhoTograPhy, tokyo, 2010; The exPoSeD #3.5 , aRt ZonE, Kyoto, 2009. Her work is represented

by G/P Gallery, tokyo.

Shigeo goTo —

When two realities crossed

hiroMix, p. 169

essay

in the reality of high-speed Tokyo, beautiful sensitivity synchronized with the sentiment of araki’s photography.

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After Araki

I think she still believes in purity and the subtle beauty and preciousness of time that photography catches.

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after TokYo loVE, the encounter of hiromix and araki, her works won awards at major competitions in Japan, including the ihei kimura award and Shashin Shinseiki. those awards and her new fame did not mature her photography. Some say her photography denies maturity. but i do not think that is correct. i think she still believes in purity and the subtle beauty and preciousness of time that photography catches. in the twenty years since her debut her photography has gained a new, powerful intensity.

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When two realities crossed

works. it was one of the moments when the influence of araki’s photography became truly apparent to the younger generation. though her works did not follow araki’s aesthetic, they accepted sentimentalism about how intimate and personal photography can be and how far the mixture of reality and fiction can go, all of which were clearly influenced by araki.

photography

IS A lIE AND

merely A coPY of reality. exiStenCe ComeS FirSt.

nobuyoshi araki, interview by hyewon yi,

graphy review, volume 1, issue 2, Spring 2011

croSSINg BouNDArIES: AN INTErVIEW WITh NoBuYoShI ArAkI from tap: trans asia photo-

photography IS A SeConDary thing, beCauSe aCtual obJeCtS

ArE TruE AND

all images from the series girLy DiMeNSioN Š HIRomIX, courtesy of the artist

after araki

sHIGEo Goto (b. 1954, Japan) was born in osaka and lives and works in tokyo. Goto has been involved in many art projects as publisher, editor, public speaker and creative director. He has held the position as professor at Kyoto university of art and design since 2003, is director of tokyo’s G/P Gallery. He is also involved in numerous international cultural exchange projects, including the special exhibition aNiMa oN PhoTo that recently took place as part of unseen Photo Fair 2014.

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HIRomIX (b. 1976, Japan) was born in tokyo and became something of a phenomenon in Japan after winning the Canon new Cosmos of Photography Prize, nominated by nobuyoshi araki, for a series of photographs called SeveNTeeN girL DayS. she published her first book girLS bLue (1996) to critical acclaim, pioneering a new wave of young, female photographers, and she became even more well known in the west when steidl published her book hiroMix (1998). she was awarded the prestigious Kimura Ihei award (2001) for her book hiroMix workS and has held various exhibitions including hiroMix at the shibuya Parco Gallery, tokyo (1997). she has also been working as a film director since 1995, has also modelled for Yves saint Laurent, been photographed by Wolfgang tillmans, and has a cameo appearance in the 2003 film LoST iN TraNSLaTioN.

IVan VaRtanIan —

Through this flows the continuous

aZuma maKoto, p. 105

nomuRa saKIKo, p. 65

Essay

araki’s presence extends beyond the realm of the photography community and into the popular consciousness of visual culture in Japan.

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BANg! SoME kIND of cITY, SoME kIND of Woman JuST

appearS. maybe memorieS of ThE

nobuyoshi araki, interview by kaori Fujino, translated by andrew maerkle, A.’S SEcrET, our SEc ret from oJo ShAShu: PhoTogrAPhY for ThE AfTErlIfE, First edition, 2014

thingS I SAW yeSterDay, or ThE DAY beFore [...] i Don’t think about WhAT ComeS NEXT. IT JuST popS up.

all images from the series eNCyCLoPeDia oF FLowerS

© azuma makoto, courtesy of the artists

aZuma maKoto consists of maKoto aZuma (b. 1976, Japan), the florist-artist, and sHunsuKE sHIInoKI (b. 1976, Japan), the florist-photographer. the duo began working together as florists in 2000, and in 2002 they established the speciality florist shop Jardins des Fleurs in tokyo.

In 2005 aZuma began to create ‘botanical sculptures’ whilst sHIInoKI would photograph them. they have released two books together: 2009-2011 FLowerS (seigensha, 2011) and eNCyCLoPeDia oF FLowerS (Lars müller Publishers, 2012). aZuma has been the creative director of suntory midorie, an urban ecological development project, since 2012. they both live and work in tokyo. all images from the series NakeD TiMe © nomura sakiko, courtesy of the artist and akio nagasawa Gallery

after araki

IVan VaRtanIan (b. 1972, united states) is a tokyo-based author, producer, and founder of the imprint Goliga (www.goliga. com), making photobooks and photobook editions. under the Goliga imprint he has also organises performance-based events, such as Say CheeSe: The worLD oF MarTiN Parr iN 5 CourSeS and DaiDo MoriyaMa: PriNTiNg Show. He is the co-author of JaPaNeSe PhoTobookS oF The 1960s aND ‘70s (aperture, 2009) and the lead editor of SeTTiNg SuN: wriTiNgS by JaPaNeSe PhoTo graPherS (aperture, 2005).

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nomuRa saKIKo (b. 1967 Japan) was born in shimonoseki, Yamaguchi. In 1990 she graduated from the department of Photography at Kyushu sangyo university in Fukuoka. shortly thereafter, she became nobuyoshi araki’s assistant whilst simultaneously producing independent works. after her first solo exhibition CLoCk wiThouT haND in 1993, nomura has participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions in tokyo and throughout Europe. these exhibitions have received high international appraisal and have led to her winning such prizes as the new Figure Encouragement Prize at Photo City sagamihara in 2013. Her recent photobooks include kuroyaMi (akio nagasawa Publishing, 2008), NighT FLighT (Little more, 2008), NuDe/a rooM/ FLowerS (match and Company, 2012) and hoTeL PegaSuS (Libro arte, 2013).

MarC FeuSTeL —

Keep on taking Photographs for Ever and Ever

Momo okabe, p. 81

Lieko Shiga, p. 193 Daifu Motoyuki, p. 209

essay

They fade into the background as every frame is packed with debris to the point of bursting.

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in the early 2000s, i fell into the cauldron of Japanese photography and have spent the last decade sharing my passion for this country’s extraordinary photographic culture by attempting to increase its visibility in the West. When i began on this path ten years ago, Japanese photographers were little known in europe, with two notable exceptions: Daido moriyama and nobuyoshi araki. Fortunately though, we are now as likely to see a lot of work from Japan as we are from a close geographic neighbour. yet, the influence of moriyama and araki remains as strong as ever. they remain living national treasures.

While araki is familiar to anyone with an interest in fine art photography, we tend to have a narrow view of this self-

proclaimed ‘photo maniac’. the discourse surrounding his work was well summed up by the title of an article in the guardian newspaper, written on the occasion of an exhibition at a london gallery in 2013: ‘is nobuyoshi araki’s photography art or porn?’ the art world’s spotlight has never been fond of complexity and so araki’s fame – or is it notoriety? – derives almost entirely from his photographs of the traditional Japanese art of bondage (kinbaku). and yet this photographer from the traditional ShITA­ MAchI quarter of downtown tokyo has produced an extraordinarily diverse body of work over five decades.

For those who might see araki as a kind of jester to the court of photography, take a look at his early work on the brothers Sachin and

mabo, his astonishing ShokuJI or his recent book, chIro loVE DEATh, devoted to his beloved cat Chiro that packs the same emotional punch as his much celebrated SENTIMENTAl JourNEY. araki is several photographers wrapped into one. he is a photographic chameleon, pandering to the crowd in one instant before hitting them with a curve ball in the next.

(ThE BANquET),

the most telling examples of the importance and depth of his work can be seen in his publishing output. according to the ArArchY PhoToBook MANIA exhibition at the izu photo museum in 2012, araki produced no less than 454 publications between 1970 and 2012, a number that must now be creeping close to 500.

After Araki

araki is a fixed reference for any photographer working in Japan today. the scale and volume of his work and the fact that he remains, at 74, an extraordinarily prolific photographer makes him pretty well the chief tastemaker on the Japanese photo scene, attributing awards, supporting young artists and occupying more than his fair share of the limelight. in addition, the fact that araki has been synonymous with Japanese

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he is a photographic chameleon, pandering to the crowd in one instant before hitting them with a curve ball in the next.

in his 1971 book SENTIMENTAl JourNEY , araki famously compared his photographic style to that of the i-novel, a literary genre that arose in early twentieth-century Japanese literature: ‘my point of departure as a photographer is love, and it just so happens that i began from an i-novel. [...] that’s because i think the i-novel comes closest to photography.’ this form of confessional literature is based on a naturalistic approach, often involving an exploration of the darker side of society or of the author’s life. Daifu motoyuki’s ProJEcT fAMIlY clearly operates in this tradition, updated for the everyday reality of twentyfirst century Japan. of the three contemporary photographers i will consider in this piece, motoyuki could

be araki’s most direct descendant. born in 1985 in tokyo, this young photographer has made the most personal aspects of his world the subject matter for his work. in 2005, motoyuki started taking snapshots of his family home in tokyo which he shares with his parents and siblings. in 2013 he published a book of these photographs entitled ProJEcT fAMIlY. While the idea of photographing one’s residence could not be more ordinary, motoyuki’s family home is anything but. the mess and clutter is overwhelming. bags of rubbish, piles of clothes, halfeaten meals, dirty dishes and empty packaging all jostle for position in an arrangement so dense that barely a single square inch of floor or wall can be seen. his family

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keep on Taking Photographs for Ever and Ever

photography for so many years leads us to project his influence onto the work of any Japanese photographer, no matter how unrelated they might be. the extent of his influence is a question worth exploring, not only to get a better understanding of this anarchic artist, but also to consider how the ideas he has championed throughout his career manifest themselves in today’s world.

all images from the series ProJeCT FaMiLy © daifu motoyuki, courtesy of the artist and misako & Rosen, tokyo

daIFu motoYuKI (b. 1985, Japan) held his first solo exhibition in 2008 at nikon salon in tokyo. since then he has exhibited extensively in Japan and the united states including Vacant, tokyo; Lombard-Freid Project, new York; and Little Big man, Los angeles.

He released the immensely popular ProJeCT FaMiLy through dashwood Books in 2013, and in 2014 it was one of the shortlisted portfolios for the Prix Pictet. He lives and works in Kanagawa in Japan. all images from the series bibLe © momo okabe, courtesy of the artist momo oKaBE (b. 1981, Japan) received her BFa in Photography from nihon university of art in 2004. In 1999 her work was selected by nobuyoshi araki for the prestigious new Cosmos of Photography award, and in 2009 she was selected by masafumi sanai for the Color Im aging Contest of EPson. Her photobook DiLDo, published by session Press, was selected by Hisako motoo for the Photoeye Best Photobook award in 2013. bibLe was published this year, also by session Press.

Raised in France, she now lives and works in tokyo. all images from the series raSeN kaigaN © Lieko shiga, courtesy of the artist

maRC FEustEL (b. 1978, united Kingdom) is a writer, editor and curator. a specialist in Japanese photo graphy, he is the author of

after araki

JaPaN: a SeLF-PorTraiT, PhoTograPhS 1945-1964 (Flammarion, 2004) and

has curated several exhibitions as creative director of studio Equis.

He writes regularly for publications including FoaM, The PhoTobook review , and The eyeS. He blogs at eyecurious.tumblr.com and pcuts. net. He lives and works in Paris.

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LIEKo sHIGa (b. 1980, Japan) was born in aichi and currently lives and works in miyagi, Japan.

In 2004 she graduated from the Chelsea university of art and design in London, earning a Ba in Fine arts and new media. since 2001 she has exhibited in solo and group shows internationally, including Gothenburg museum of art, 2011; Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne, 2012; Foam Photography museum, amsterdam, 2013; tokyo metro politan Photography museum, 2013. she has won several awards, including the Young Photographer ICP Infinity award, 2009, and the sagamihara Photo award, 2013. raSeN kaigaN was published in 2013 by aKaaKaa Publishers.

Š Issei Suda

Kou Inose Takayuki Ogawa Tenmei Kanoh Takashi Kijima Seiji Kurata Eiichiro Sakata Hajime Sawatari Toshio Shibata Issei Suda Masato Seto Yoshirhro Tatsuki Masatoshi Naito Sakiko Nomura Eikoh Hosoe Daido Moriyama Takuma Nakahira Gozo Yoshimasu Kohei Yoshiyuki Sarah Moon William Klein

Ginsho bldg. 6F, 4 -9-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104 - 0061, JAPAN tel/fax +81 3 6264 3670 info@akionagasawa.com www.akionagasawa.com

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LECTURIS / VAN ZOETENDAAL

Otto Snoek An observation of the Ukraine, spread over 25 years.

LECTURIS / VAN ZOETENDAAL

Rugdikte aanpassen / Let op dat titel, naam en logo in het midden van de rug staat

Otto Snoek (b. Rotterdam, 1966) first visited eastern Ukraine in 1989.

In twelve months, spread across six trips between 1989 and 1992, he photographed Ukrainian cities and the countryside in the latter years of communism.

Snoek documented a poor and desperate country and presented the resulting work as his graduation project at the St. Joost Academy in Breda. During that period of travel and work he laid the foundations for his continuing career as a photographer.

Over the years Otto Snoek became fascinated by public spaces that function as junctions, such as squares and shopping centres. He calls them social centrifuges and turntables, where everything and everyone seem to congregate. They are places where groupings with their own codes gather and where it is logical that frictions and tensions between individuals and groups arise.

This means that different things happen simultaneously in photos

by Snoek. They form a summary of what occurs at these places. It seems like all the extras in his photos have a personal role in a play without a director. Snoek captures this in an incomparable personal style. You can already ‘read’ his attitude and way of looking in the Ukraine about 25 years ago. He not only photographs the Ukrainians in their malaise, but also as a proud nation that is courageously resigned to its fate. From Snoek’s photos you can also see that he does not observe cynically from afar but stands in the people’s midst, even if he doesn’t speak their language.

Otto Snoek’s journey to Ukraine at such a young age is comparable to the first journeys of Dutch predecessors like Johan van der Keuken (1938-2001) and Peter Martens (1937-1992). It reveals the candid gaze of a young man who can only restrain his amazement and curiosity with his camera. Snoek lives and works in his native city of Rotterdam.

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Van der Vlugt selected Polaroids of flowers he made in the last twenty-five years.

Morad Bouchakours Bye Bye Portfolio is based on his last handmade portfolio from 2008. It is his farewell to the creative medium portfolio.

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Issue #40 after araki editor-in-chief marloes Krijnen creative Director pjotr de Jong (Vandejong) editors george allen, zippora elders, marcel Feil, pjotr de Jong, marloes Krijnen, elisa medde managing editor elisa medde acting editor george allen magazine management anne colenbrander, Lout coolen communication Intern Lara Lise Bullens art Director hamid sallali (Vandejong) Design & Layout gabrielle pauty (Vandejong) Judith van Werkhoven (Vandejong) ayumi higuchi Typefaces plantagenet cherokee, Koban Beta (by afrika Design studio, zurich, www.afrika.to; Designers: Florian Jakober & michael zehnder) contributing photographers and artists emi anrakuji, nobuyoshi araki, hIromIX, mayumi hosokura, azuma makoto, Daifu motoyuki, momo okabe, nomura sakiko, Lieko shiga cover photographs Front cover: Image from the series qARADISE © nobuyoshi araki, courtesy of the artist in collaboration with galerie alex Daniëls / reflex amsterdam Back cover: Image from the series qARADISE © nobuyoshi araki, courtesy of the artist in collaboration with galerie alex Daniëls / reflex amsterdam

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contributing Writers zippora elders, marcel Feil, marc Feustel, shigeo goto, russet Lederman, Ivan Vartanian copy editor pittwater Literary services: rowan hewison Translations magda Kasprzyk, Karin Kuwahara, Liz Waters, michie Yamakawa

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special Thanks simon Baker, alex Daniels, marc Feustel, sawako Fukai, shigeo goto, Taka Ishii, russet Lederman, Takayuki mashiyama, natsuko odate, miwa susuda, Ivan Vartanian

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Emi Anrakuji ipy

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Lieko Shiga Rasen Kaigan

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Daifu Motoyuki Project Family

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After ArAki