ARAKI

"This book reveals everything about me. It's been a 60-year contract.Photography is love and death-that'll be my epitaph." -Araki The subject is Japanese photographer Araki, a man who talks about lifethrough photographs. His powerful oeuvre, decades' worth of images, hasbeen pared down to 540 pages of photographs which tell the story of Arakiand comprise the ultimate retrospective collection of his work. Known best for his intimate, snapshot-style images of women often tied upwith ropes (kinbaku, Japanese rope-tying art) and of colorful, sensualflowers, Araki is an artist who reacts strongly to his emotions and usesphotography to experience them more fully. Obsessed with women, Arakiseeks to come closer to them through photography, using ropes like anembrace and the click of the shutter like a kiss. His work is at onceshocking and mysteriously tender; a deeply personal artist, Araki is notafraid of his emotions nor of showing them to the world.