TITEL NOBUYOSHI ARAKI Subheadline

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1 TITEL NOBUYOSHI ARAKI Subheadline.. December 08, 2018 March 03, 2019 C/O Berlin Foundation. Hardenbergstraße Berlin

2 PRESS RELEASE Berlin, December 07, 2018 NOBUYOSHI ARAKI C/O Berlin will be presenting the exhibition. Impossible Love Vintage Photographs from December 08, 2018 to March 03, The Opening will take place on Friday, December 07, 2018, at 07:00 p.m. at C/O Berlin in the Amerika Haus at Hardenbergstrasse 22 24, Berlin. A young woman with her legs spread wide; buttoned-up dressed workers on a city street. Photographs like these of intimate, private scenes juxtaposed against snapshots of nameless passers-by were an early commentary on the heterogeneity of Japanese society. In 1973, Japanese photographer published a series of image pairs showing life in Tokyo between 1969 and 1973 as a photographic book. In their authenticity, these early works by Araki reveal a dysfunctional society, calling the social responsibility and moral sense of its members into question. is one of the most influential and widely discussed artists in the world whose work deals with nakedness, sexuality, and the body in a radical and realistic way. In these works, what is most surprising to the viewer is the photographer s lack of distance and the familiarity of his gaze. Araki s extreme closeness and intimacy with the subjects and the situations depicted are unique and revolutionary to this day. In contrast to classic photojournalism, which looks into an unfamiliar world from the outside, Araki not only is part of his subjects lives but also plays a central role in his own photographs, thus transcending voyeurism. He navigates the tense relationship between classical visual composition and his chosen visual themes with a direct, intense visual language, creating works that are in equal parts moving and unsettling and that set him apart from virtually all of his peers. His work concentrates on a sexuality that is lived out in complete openness. In depicting this, the artist never denounces or accuses, but instead leaves all interpretation up to the viewer. Together with US photographers Nan Goldin and Larry Clark and Ukrainian photographer Boris Mikhailow, Araki is considered one of the pioneers of intimate, subjective photography. Curated by Felix Hoffmann, the exhibition. Impossible Love Vintage Photographs includes previously unpublished series of his early works, combined with a selection of his recent series Flower / Doll, Sky / Winds, and Polaroid collages. A catalog accompanying the exhibition will be published by Steidl Verlag, Göttingen. C/O Berlin Foundation. Amerika Haus. Hardenbergstrasse Berlin

3 PRESS RELEASE Berlin, December 07, 2018 (b in Tokyo) worked in advertising after completing his studies in photography and film at Chiba University in Tokyo, devoting himself exclusively to photography as of the mid-1960s. His oeuvre spans erotic portraits of women, artificial still-lifes, photographs of plants, documentary-style depictions of everyday life, and architectural photography but also very personal, diaristic photographs of himself and his deceased wife Yoko. attained international fame, however, as a photographer of nudes and erotic scenes. He has published around 600 books over the course of his career. His works have been shown in innumerable international exhibitions and are part of important collections worldwide. lives and works in Tokyo. Exhibition December 08, 2018 March 03, 2019 Press Tour December 07, :00 a.m. Opening December 07, :00 p.m. Opening Hours daily. 11:00 a.m. 08:00 p.m. Admission 10 Euro. reduced 6 Euro Organizer C/O Berlin Foundation Amerika Haus. Hardenbergstrasse Berlin Tel #coberlin Press Contact Trang Vu Thuy T vuthuy@co-berlin.org Media Partners C/O Berlin Foundation. Amerika Haus. Hardenbergstrasse Berlin

4 PRESS IMAGES December 08, 2018 March 03, 2019 C/O Berlin Foundation. Hardenbergstraße Berlin

5 PRESS IMAGES December 08, 2018 March 03, 2019 C/O Berlin Foundation. Hardenbergstraße Berlin

6 PRESS IMAGES All Images and the lenders 01 Untitled, from the series Theater of Love, Courtesy Mark Pearson Private Collection Untitled, from the series Sentimental Journey, Photo: Hubert Auer. Courtesy Österreichische Fotogalerie, Museum der Moderne Salzburg Untitled, from the series Theater of Love, Courtesy Mark Pearson Private Collection 07 Untitled, from the series Sentimental Journey, Photo: Hubert Auer. Courtesy Österreichische Fotogalerie, Museum der Moderne Salzburg Untitled, 1969/1972, from the series Tokyo, Photo: Wilfried Petzi. Courtesy Pinakothek der Moderne, München 11 From the Balcony, 2018, Polaroid. Courtesy artspace AM, Tokyo Untitled, from the series The Days We Were Happy, Courtesy Private Collection Eva Felten 14 Untitled, from the series Winter Journey, Courtesy Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris Kinbaku, 2010, Polaroid. Courtesy artspace AM, Tokyo 17 2 The Sky, 2009, Polaroid. Courtesy artspace AM, Tokyo 18 On the Balcony, 2018, Polaroid. Courtesy artspace AM, Tokyo A selection of images may be used free of charge at one time, three months before beginning and until the end of the exhibition in the context of editorial reporting only. They must not be used for commercial purposes or shared with third parties. They may not be modified, cropped, or printed over. Please always include the correct copyright notices and retain the captions supplied with images. Publications must mention C/O Berlin, the artist, and the exhibition. High-resolution image files will be provided by the C/O Berlin press office upon request. Contact Trang Vu Thuy. vuthuy@co-berlin.org December 08, 2018 March 03, 2019 C/O Berlin Foundation. Hardenbergstraße Berlin

7 WALL TEXT I AM THE CAMERA Interview with Silke Hohmann SILKE HOHMANN: Do you take pictures every day? NOBUYOSHI ARAKI: It is like breathing or the beating of my heart. Every morning I wake up, realize I m still breathing, and the first thing I do is take a picture of the sky. Does everything become more valuable the less time you have left? I called my recent solo show at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum Sentimental Journey I don t want to stop, so I added the dash after That s my current state. I want to keep going. Sentimental Journey is the title of a series of photographs you took in 1971 on your honeymoon with your wife, who passed away in There is this picture of my wife sleeping in a boat. It has become quite famous. In Japan, we believe that the dead have to cross the Sanzu River into the afterlife. Everybody interpreted the photo as the crossing of the Sanzu into the realm of the dead. But when I look at that photo today, I see an embryo just being born. For me, it is a photo of life, not death. Isn t photography a way of stopping time? Not my pictures. I think even if it s just a hundredth of a second, there is movement in my pictures. Other people have to make films to do that. You were born in Over your lifespan, the world has changed completely society, communication, technology, everything. You have always been at the cutting edge and often ahead of your time. Yet still there is something classical and eternally valid about your pictures. That happens automatically because I m always trying to capture the essence. The essence is the eternally valid, classical element. I also think the camera is the slave to the photograph, just as I am a slave to photography. I m also a slave to women when I try to capture their emotions, their essence. Over your career, photography has also changed the technology, but also its value and significance in society. Has this influenced you in any way? I never look at other photographers work. I prefer my own. I think it s important to have influences because that means progressing, but for me it s not about new technologies or people s conceptions of what photography is. I have a keen sense of which influences are good for me, and I only let those influences affect me. Not the bad ones. C/O Berlin Foundation. Amerika Haus. Hardenbergstrasse Berlin

8 WALL TEXT When I first saw your photographs twenty years ago, there had only been artistic nude photography in the tradition of painting, or just pornography. Your work represented something fascinating and new. What was that? I think it s human nature to be attracted to what you don t understand. That s why it s okay to not know what it was. I was trying to capture the soul of the person in the picture. Back then, I didn t know a lot about Japan or about kinbaku bondage or about the role of sexuality in Japanese society. Thinking about it today, I wonder if manipulating the body with rope turns the feelings from something internal to something outward. I am tying up the body, but I am trying to tie up the soul. When I tie up the subject, the distance between us becomes very small. We are very close. It s almost like I want to be tied together with the woman. So if it is about you and the woman, how does the viewer come into play? It s a love triangle. What role does the power you get over the person play in this? I don t think it s a matter of power but about playing. I don t exercise any power. Whenever I take a picture, I am at eye level with my subject. I never try to look down from above or up from below. When the subject is on the ground, I m on the ground too. My subject is always my equal. The full interview by Silke Hohmann with was published in Monopol 3/2018. C/O Berlin Foundation. Amerika Haus. Hardenbergstrasse Berlin