Araki interviewed by Jérôme Sans
"This book displays my life, the women, my wife, and city streets..." - Nobuyoshi Araki
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Why call your book "Araki by Araki" when you have edited most of your own books yourself? Was there something special about this one?
I turned sixty at the end of the 20th century. In Japan, a sixtieth birthday, called the Kanreki, is a specific date representing a cycle of life that finishes while another one begins. It's a passage, a renaissance. For this occasion, I thought of compiling all my works. I've kept some of the best for the end, like "Picasso's Picasso". First, I thought of publishing everything myself in Japan. But finally it seemed more interesting to do it through another person's perspective, and most particularly a foreigner's. For me, the "other person" is always a foreigner. And this time, it is indeed a foreigner, which is very fresh. Ultimately, this book is not "Araki by Araki", but "Araki by TASCHEN". I think it remains just as interesting. When a foreigner chooses my works, it can reveal to unknown aspects of myself. I've had many exhibits abroad (in Austria at the Wiener Secession, in Italy at the Museo-Centro per l'arte contemporanea Pecci de Prato ...) and each time I encountered a similar experience. I had already found that things which did not seem particularly important to me were interesting to others.
Generally, one believes that ideas or thoughts enter photography through editing or cropping. This does not work for me. My photos convey lots of strength and energy on their own. I can't allow for them to be handed over to an editor, because I am quite certain of the outlook and the strength of my photos. Normally, it becomes the outlook of the one editing them. But I have confidence in my photographs. They never change.
How does this book differ from the other books?
This book shows people my life, the women, my wife, and city streets ... They're like branches of my emotions! They have been compiled as the trunk of a large tree, and I am expecting it to bloom like a flower! Araki by Araki is an epitaph for my sixty years. I've been taking photographs since I came into this world. I was no sooner out of my mother's womb, than I turned around and photographed her sex! Photography is the first thing I shall do after my reincarnation! This is my dying will of sixty years. It is a testament which reads: photography is love and death ...
How do you define love?
Love is hard to define. When you love a woman, she survives in a photo or a memory. And feelings survive, too. For example, I loved my wife, and traces of this remain in my feelings and my body, traces that survive in the photos. (I am mentioning my wife only because otherwise there could be a problem!)
Página 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Página 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Why call your book "Araki by Araki" when you have edited most of your own books yourself? Was there something special about this one?
I turned sixty at the end of the 20th century. In Japan, a sixtieth birthday, called the Kanreki, is a specific date representing a cycle of life that finishes while another one begins. It's a passage, a renaissance. For this occasion, I thought of compiling all my works. I've kept some of the best for the end, like "Picasso's Picasso". First, I thought of publishing everything myself in Japan. But finally it seemed more interesting to do it through another person's perspective, and most particularly a foreigner's. For me, the "other person" is always a foreigner. And this time, it is indeed a foreigner, which is very fresh. Ultimately, this book is not "Araki by Araki", but "Araki by TASCHEN". I think it remains just as interesting. When a foreigner chooses my works, it can reveal to unknown aspects of myself. I've had many exhibits abroad (in Austria at the Wiener Secession, in Italy at the Museo-Centro per l'arte contemporanea Pecci de Prato ...) and each time I encountered a similar experience. I had already found that things which did not seem particularly important to me were interesting to others.
Generally, one believes that ideas or thoughts enter photography through editing or cropping. This does not work for me. My photos convey lots of strength and energy on their own. I can't allow for them to be handed over to an editor, because I am quite certain of the outlook and the strength of my photos. Normally, it becomes the outlook of the one editing them. But I have confidence in my photographs. They never change.
How does this book differ from the other books?
This book shows people my life, the women, my wife, and city streets ... They're like branches of my emotions! They have been compiled as the trunk of a large tree, and I am expecting it to bloom like a flower! Araki by Araki is an epitaph for my sixty years. I've been taking photographs since I came into this world. I was no sooner out of my mother's womb, than I turned around and photographed her sex! Photography is the first thing I shall do after my reincarnation! This is my dying will of sixty years. It is a testament which reads: photography is love and death ...
How do you define love?
Love is hard to define. When you love a woman, she survives in a photo or a memory. And feelings survive, too. For example, I loved my wife, and traces of this remain in my feelings and my body, traces that survive in the photos. (I am mentioning my wife only because otherwise there could be a problem!)
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Nobuyoshi Araki
