Sex and the single snapper

• Source: Global Times
• [10:00 July 29 2010]
• Comments

By Nick Muzyczka

Over the years Japan's best-known photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki, has courted much controversy. In 1988 Japanese police ordered the Shashin Jidai magazine featuring his work be removed from public sale, while in 1992 the artist was the focus of obscenity charges after a particularly risqué exhibition. In 1993 a gallery owner was arrested for displaying his photographs.

Araki's work is often intensely sensual and erotic, especially in his black-and-white collections, which often feature young women in their 20s in various states of undress.

In this collection of pieces from four of his famous photographic series, including Diary, Tokyo Cityscapes, Flowers and A's Paradise, Shanghai audiences have the opportunity to view the work of an artist who has been variously regarded as a monster, a pornographer and a genius.

The exhibition on display at the Shanghart Gallery on Huaihai Road is attracting crowds of visitors.

Some commentators see in Araki's work a reflection of some of the deeper hypocrisies of a world in which art galleries have to fight to show work involving nudity or sexually open content, while sex shops and districts in which prostitution is rife are left unregulated.

Wang Li, an art student in Shanghai and exhibition visitor, told the Global Times that she "doesn't mind the nudity in Araki's photographs."

"In fact it is a refreshing change to view scenes that we don't often come across. The bedroom pictures are filled with lust, but the women aren't objectified."

Many levels of emotion are discernable in Araki's women. Occasionally they display a playful coyness that is both inviting and seductive, but more often than not they cast an inquiring, penetrating gaze at the viewer.

It is almost like an interrogation, with the chief question being: "So, what are you going to do?" The figures are powerful and confident, displaying an awareness of and control over their sexual energy.

Objections and rejections from critics (alongside a great deal of praise) have been life-long companions to Araki's work. In 2005, The New York Times suggested that Araki's "stylish, staged photographs of beautiful young nude or partly nude women bound by ropes featured in this exhibition are annoying and risible."