25 Polaroids, ca. 1990-1999
Nobuyoshi Araki is famous for his provocative, erotic photographs and prolific ouevre; over 500 books have been devoted to his work. Throughout his frames, Araki has captured flowers, food, figurines, and bodies with a distinct sensuality that reaches its apex in his close-up shots of female genitalia, pictures of women in traditional Japanese rope bondage, and photographs of Tokyo sex clubs. His style is deliberately casual, and he has worked in both color and black and white. Araki’s famous early series “Sentimental Voyage,” from 1971, depicts both the intimate and banal moments of his honeymoon. Though he has been arrested repeatedly in Japan for breaking obscenity laws, his work has been widely celebrated: Araki has been the subject of exhibitions at Tate Modern, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Albertina Museum in Vienna, among other institutions. His work regularly sells for six figures on the secondary market.