Nobuyoshi Araki, or simply Araki, as everybody calls him, is arguably Japan's most important living photographer. He is famous in Japan for his television and promotional appearances, eccentric showmanship, and outspoken views on art and life. He is also critically acclaimed among international art circles. His entrance into the pantheon of high art was confirmed when he exhibited with Nan Goldin and Larry Clark, two of the hottest photographers in the New York art scene in the late 1990`s. He has since held exhibitions in the most important photo art galleries and museums all over the world.

  He is perhaps more infamous than famous -- as one of Japan's most prominate sex photographers. Many of his works blur the line between art and obscenity, and make an easy target for the art vs obcentity controversy. Throughout his 43-year career, Araki has embraced pornography as an almost constant theme, approaching it both as a genre and critical subject matter. In the late 70s and early 80s, his work was featured in magazines like S&M Sniper and Japanese Playboy, and fueled some of Japan's more illicit fascinations through his first (and only) commercial film, Pseudo Diary: Highschool Girls. Throughout the 80s, he documented Tokyo's underground pornography scene in an unforgiving series more telltale than arousing.

  As his reputation and fame increased, Araki pushed the limits even further -- often too far for Japanese authorities, who still censor images of genitalia. In 1988, his contributions to the magazine Photo Age led Japanese police to recall the issue on grounds of obscenity. In 1992, he was fined 300,000 yen for an "obscene" gallery exhibition, and in 1993 police arrested gallery workers for selling his book, Erotos. Not a few of his works even on eBay have been delisted from the general listing categories.

  If the images he displays are coarse, it is a reflection of his own experiences. Araki's is a universe of Tokyo cityscapes, street life, anonymous faces, and, most intense erotic moments. He shows both the beautiful and the banal. Often taking the risk of disregarding aesthetics completely to stress his artistic view.

  Most of Araki`s photo books and photo dvd`s are like flipping through a pile of photographs Araki has just brought home from the lab. It is about how viewers in the internet age relate to multiple images, about how the single image is losing power in the era of image inundation and instant processing.

  Close to 200 books have been published by Araki dating back to the 1970`s, most only published in Japan, out of print and likely to increase in value and rarity to collectors.

Top 10 Araki internet titles (not in order) by publisher, published year, page numbers, and # ISDN number:

Nobuyoshi Araki: Shijyo Tokyo--Marketplace of Emotions
Nobuyoshi Araki, Ulf Erdmann Ziegler, Zdenek Felix (Editor)
Hardcover  /  136 Pages  /  Edition Stemmle  /  September 1998  /  # 3908161215
List Price $45.00  

Andy Warhol: Ladies & Gentleman, Sex.    
Parts, Torsos, Polaroids
Andy Warhol, Nobuyoshi Araki
Paperback  /  276 Pages  /  Walther Konig  /  August 2004  /  # 3931354288
List Price $70.00  

Araki: Tokyo Lucky Hole
Nobuyoshi Araki
Paperback  /  Taschen America Llc  /  April 1997  /  # 3822881899
Unpaginated but over 300 full page photos.
List Price $29.99.
*Note The original 1991 Japanese edition is totally different to the later Taschen edition (1997). The japanese edition is a brilliant production, out of print, and lists for $200 and up.

Araki
Nobuyoshi Araki
Hardcover  /  720 Pages  /  Phaidon Inc Ltd  /  November 2005  /  # 0714845558
List Price $75.00.

Araki (Limited Edition)
Nobuyoshi Araki, Tomoko Sato (Editor), Akiko Miki (Editor), Yoshiko Isshiki (Editor)
Hardcover  /  719 Pages  /  Phaidon Inc Ltd  /  October 2005  /  # 0714845760
List Price $175.00.

Araki Nobuyoshi
Nobuyoshi Araki, Toshiharu Ito, Araki Nobuyoshi (Photographer)
Hardcover  /  Distributed Art Pub Inc  /  May 1998  /  # 4771328323
List Price $29.95.

Daido Moriyama
Daido Moriyama, Nobuyoshi Araki
Hardcover  /  160 Pages  /  Thames & Hudson  /  April 2004  /  # 0500970130
List Price $39.95 .

Nobuyoshi Araki Polaeroid (Miniature)
Nobuyoshi Araki, Hans-Ulrich Obrist (Editor)
Paperback  /  144 Pages  /  Oktagon  /  August 1998  /  # 3896110381
List Price $45.00.

Yoshiki Hishinuma: 100 Flowers, 100 Butterflies
Nobuyoshi Araki
Paperback  /  Kodansha Amer Inc  /  March 2001  /  # 4770026854
List Price $50.00.

Tokyo Love: Spring Fever 1994
Nan Goldin, Nobuyoshi Araki
Paperback  /  208 Pages  /  Distributed Art Pub Inc  /  September 1995  / # 1881616576
List Price $45.00.