NEGAEROPOLIS UGANBOCHI by Nobuyoshi Araki

A collection of works by Nobuyoshi Araki. This limited edition photobook, with only 300 copies printed, was published in 2015 to coincide with the exhibition "NEGAEROPOLIS UGANBOCHI" held at Rat Hole Gallery.

This book features two new series: "NEGAEROPOLIS" with color works and "UGANBOCHI" with monochrome works. In "NEGAEROPOLIS," Araki's signature motifs such as cities, flowers, dolls, and nudes are printed directly from the negative film without reversal, creating a unique world where life and death, yin and yang coexist in an inverted state.

"UGANBOCHI" is a series shot through intentionally cracked lenses, tracing the vision of his right eye, which had almost lost its sight, capturing cemeteries and cities in Tokyo. From the photographs, burned with the date of the end of the war, Araki's view of life and death, where he feels the city as a graveyard, and his perspective on Japan, 70 years after the war, emerge.

Nobuyoshi Araki says, "Positive and negative are like living and dying." This book is an important late-career work where cities, eros, death, and memory intersect, condensing Araki's gaze, who has been photographing Tokyo for many years.

[Title] NEGAEROPOLIS UGANBOCHI by Nobuyoshi Araki
[Publisher] Rat Hole Gallery
[Publication Date] 2015
[Pages] 84 pages
[Size] Approx. 185*240*10mm / 295g
[Format] Softcover
[Language] Japanese, English
[Title Reading] NEGAEROPOLIS UGANBOCHI
[Author/Editor] Nobuyoshi Araki/Author, Tomohiro Koketsu/Design
[Printing] Daishinsha/Printing and binding
[ISBN] -
[Condition] Used【7】Good (generally good)
[Accessories] None
[Featured In] -
[Related Exhibition] NEGAEROPOLIS UGANBOCHI (Rat Hole Gallery, September 26 - October 27, 2015)

Nobuyoshi Araki (born 1940)

Born in Minowa, Taito-ku, Tokyo. Photographer.

After graduating from Chiba University's Faculty of Engineering, Department of Photography and Printing, he worked at Dentsu before becoming independent. He began producing photographs in the 1960s, releasing a vast body of work on themes of personal photography, cities, nudes, flowers, travel, and death. He is internationally recognized as one of Japan's leading post-war photographers.

In 1971, he self-published "Sentimental Journey." Subsequently, he released numerous photobooks including "Tokyo Story," "Winter Journey," "Erotos," "Tokyo Lucky Hole," and "New World of Love," establishing his unique photographic world that traverses life and death, eros and the city.

His representative works include "Sentimental Journey," "Tokyo Story," "Winter Journey," "My Beloved Chiro," "Tokyo Lucky Hole," "New World of Love," and "Erotos."

His major awards include the Taiyo Award (1964), Ina Nobuo Award (1981), Higashikawa Prize Domestic Photographer Award (1990), Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts (1999), and the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art (2008).

His major collections are held at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Tate Modern, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Centre Pompidou, among others.

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