Nobuyoshi Araki is one of Japan's greatest living photographers, and certainly its most

controversial. Over the last forty years he has published more than 250 books, which

bear testimony to his inexhaustible creative energy, while his work, which often challenges

social taboos surrounding sex and death, has drawn critical attention both at

home and abroad.

In 1971 Araki privately published Sentimental Journey , an intimate account of his honeymoon

with his wife Yoko. In the Preface to this book Araki declared that his `point of

departure as a photographer was love ... and the idea of an "I-novel"'; a form of Japanese

fiction written autobiographically and in the first person. With this, Araki established a

new genre, `I-photography', in which his own life and feelings became the central subject

of his work. This idea was to have a great impact on a new generation of Japanese photographers,

especially in the 1990s.

Through his immense body of work Araki has created his own universe, where the

themes of sex, life and death are closely intertwined. Tokyo, Araki's home city, often

plays a leitmotif in his work, while his rich visual vocabulary is drawn from the erotic

ukiyo-e prints of the Edo period (1600-1868) as well as the glossy imagery of the new

commercial culture. Through his innovative approach to photography - sometimes

combining painting, drawing and film - Araki has become an important and influential

figure in the contemporary art world.

This major publication provides the most comprehensive overview yet of Araki's highly

prolific forty-year career. Araki's key series of works are included alongside many new

and previously unpublished photographs. Featuring an interview and essays by writers

from Japan and Europe, this book examines Araki from a broad range of perspectives and

gives a cultural context to his work. Also included is a wide selection of Araki's writings,

translated into English for the first time, as well as an illustrated and annotated bibliography

of his own books. Reflecting Araki's photographie principle, `I-photography',

the book is divided into three sections that follow the main recurring themes in his work:

Self, Life and Death.