Nobuyoshi Araki: Polarnography

Polarnography is a collection of 100 previously unpublished Polaroid pictures taken by Nobuyoshi Araki in 2016, in which portraits of women and expanses of sky are given equal space, their matching being never random.

The controversial nudes of Japanese women bound with the kinbaku technique made him famous all over the world, just as his visceral love for the city of Tokyo, celebrated in many of his photo series and publications – from Tokyo Lucky Hole to Tokyo Diary, Tokyo Novelle and Suicide in Tokyo. Women and sky not only share the traditional Polaroid format but complement one another, both in forms and colours: 100 combinations for 100 unique, previously unpublished and unrepeatable works. The 100 Polaroids by the Japanese master are reproduced in facsimile and gathered in a box which is, in turn, the facsimile of the one that contained the original photographs. The rhetorical composition between Polaroid and Pornography obviously lies at the heart of the title Polarnography.

 

Nobuyoshi Araki (Tokyo, 1940), one of the most controversial and representative artists of this age, is a witness to and an emblematic master of contemporary photography. Over the course of his long and multifaceted creative career, he has used photography in its different genres, meanings and iconic possibilities, pushing it to the extreme limits of intense, hyperreal, aesthetically refined and sublime visions. He has published over 350 books and is considered one of the most prolific artists of all time. His works are found in numerous museums worldwide, including the Tate and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

 

Filippo Maggia is curator of photography at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin and since 2015 has collaborated with Sky Arte HD, acting as scholarly consultant for the Master of Photography in 2016 and 2017.

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