“…each time I write the word “love”, it comes out looking different. If I write it a lot it begins to look like a new word, and I doubt if it’s even the word “love” anymore. And this feeling is similar to what I feel when I take photographs. Or it’s like a woman you love. She’s the same person everyday but she’s also different. These two feelings, her being the same forever, and changing every moment- between this back-and-forth movement is where photography occurs.
When I write, the materials I use change according to my mood. Whether I use a brush and ink, a magic marker, a ballpoint pen- it all depends on the mood. And this the same when choosing what camera to use, too. Maybe I’ll choose a compact camera with a date-imprint function or a 6x7 camera on a tripod. It’s all very similar. “
- Nobuyoshi Araki
in conversation with critic Kotaro Iizawa in the photography quarterly deja-vu number 20. Summer, 1995