Misty Media Sex Blog

December 29th 2005, 13:43 Jeff Sela

Just before Christmas, on my way through London, I stopped off to check out the Nobuyoshi Araki exhibition at The Barbican art gallery. I knew little about him, except that he is a well respected photographer in Japan, and notorious around the world for his more sexy pictures. But I was taken aback by the breadth and subtlety of work that this exhibition shows.

The Self•Life•Death exhibition is collected from Araki's 40 year career. It includes many of the nudes and coverage of the Tokyo sex industry which he is most famous for, but also his less well-known pictures of flowers, food, clouds, and a touching series that tell of the death of his wife, Yoko.

There's a documentary film showing in the gallery in which Araki talks about what his work means to him. He's seems like a fun guy, and the film certainly isn't a dry academic study. Another thing to look out for is the display of more than 3,000 Polaroid photographs, of a wide range of subjects, arranged as a collage.

I found Araki's nudes particularly interesting though. They are rarely just a recording of a naked woman. Araki often appears to be part of the scene, whether or not he is visible in the frame. Sometimes he is represented by small plastic lizard or snake toys, gazing at the model or sitting on her vulva.

In other pictures his involvement is less obvious. The model might appear to be waiting for him to join her on the bed, with a space ready next to her. Through Araki the viewer becomes involved with the scene in a way that's rarely the case with mainstream pornography.

He summed up his approach in an interview* in 2000:

I touch women with my eyes. They respond to me with sexual desire and become moist. We both become aroused and at the peak of our ecstasy, I press the shutter.

In some of his work he takes the view that the photograph is a dead instant of time, which can be brought back to life in producing the print. He uses various chemical processes in developing, and paints on the negatives or prints to revitalize old black and white pictures.

This is a massive exhibition, full of inspiring photographs. Whether you're interested in Araki's portrayal of sex and eroticism, his view of Tokyo's development after the war, or his own emotional journey, I'd recommend you take a look.

The show, Araki: Self•Life•Death, will be open from until January 22nd 2006 at the Barbican Art Gallery in London. Tickets are £6–8. The curator will be giving a talk on the 18th of January.

* From an interview in the documentary Sex in Japan, part 1, shown on BBC Choice in 2000 as part of the Japan TV night.