Nobuyoshi Araki: Polarnography

Polarnography is a collection of 100 previously unpublished Polaroid pictures by Nobuyoshi Araki in 2016, in which portraits of women and sky equally divide the space. The Japanese photographer intentionally analyses the pictures, pair after pair: the controversial nudes of Japanese women bound with the kinbaku technique made him famous around the world, just as his visceral love for the city of Tokyo, celebrated in many of his photography series, from Tokyo Lucky Hole to Tokyo Diary, Tokyo Novel or Suicide in Tokyo.

Women and sky not only coexist in the traditional Polaroid shot but instead complement one another, in forms and colours: 100 combinations for 100 unique, previously unpublished and unrepeatable works. The 100 pictures by the Japanese master are reproduced in facsimile and gathered in a box which is, in turn, the facsimile of the box that held 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 the modern age, is a witness to and particularly emblematic and prolific example of contemporary photography language. Over the course of his long and multifaceted creative career, the artist has used photography in its different genres, acceptations and iconic possibilities, pushing it to the extreme limits of violent and 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, including the Tate and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.