Seen: 男 Men- Naked Face by Araki
Who: Nobuyoshi Araki
Where: Omotesando Hills
When: April 24 - May 6, 2015
Since 1997 Araki has been commissioned by Da Vinci magazine to shoot portraits of artists, actors, and other men of culture in Japan for a monthly feature. This exhibition displays over 200 of these images- and includes a video of Araki at work with his Pentax 67 in the studio making the final image, that of Takeshi Kitano, whose two portraits in the exhibition act as bookends that fully illustrate the passage of time that has gone by as this seres has progressed. Japanese photography fans may interested in Araki’s portraits of other photographers- notably Daido Moriyama, Hajime Sawatari, Chikashi Kasai, and Masafumi Sanai. I visited the exhibition on a Sunday afternoon- there was almost a solid line of people throughout the entire show- no doubt the free admission and location helped, but it was great to see so many people of all ages there to view black and white pictures hung neatly along walls.
The gift shop has the photobook for this show in stock- as well as the usual selection of Araki books in print (which is a table by itself) and postcards & DVD’s- but along with the ”男” T-shirt, one will also find some products from a collaboration with the Japanese towel manufacturer Imabari- items that include a towel and washcloth (above) embroidered with the “Arakiss” logo, but also a bathrobe as well.
One final note- The images in this show are all silver gelatin prints- all made in a darkroom. In regards to this show the Omotesando Hills website states:
デジタル写真全盛の今だからこそ、ぜひ印画紙の魅力を多くの方に体感していただければと思います。
And in English:
Especially now in this age of digital photography, we hope to give many people the experience of the appeal of traditionally printed photographic prints.
This isn’t a statement you often hear from corporate-sponsored exhibitions hung in multi-million dollar shopping complexes! Glad to hear it.