Today’s Red Lipped beauty
Red Lipped Beauty
Continuing to explore the endless labyrinth of red lips. ”If I go out without my lipstick, I feel naked.” Sofia Vergara. But does it make any difference…(?)
Across all cultures
By the South Korean artist Zipcy. Facebook
Mike Dowson’s Art
Mike Dowson’s art (link)
Mike Dowson, for his bio on his website, writes ”I am a liar and a thief.”
Guess who?
About the photographer Nobuyoshi Araki
Nobuyoshi Araki was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1940. He is Japan’s best-known photographer and its most controversial cultural export. His work is infused with an intense sexuality. He has been widely accused by feminist groups of being a misogynist because of the content of many of his photographs. Araki became famous with his erotically charged images for which he empoys the “Kinbaku” tradition, a traditional Japanese form of bondage. In Europe the shots polarize, yet Araki’s works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions since the early nineties.
Araki studied photography during his college years and then went to work at Dentsu (a Japanese advertising agency) where he also met his wife Yoko.
Araki distanced himself from photojournalism in the 1970s and turned towards nudes: scandalous large photos of vaginas, shot in effective black-and-white. His erotic photos exist not as a self-contained group but interact with his other work groups. As part of a series the nudes correspond with the flower photographies, architectural images and sky- and landscapes. He sees the themes city, woman and nature as metaphors for sexuality, birth, life and death.
In the West his works are often collected under the term “Bondage” and have caused irritation with visitors and art critics in Europe. The tying up of the female body has a special tradition in Japan, as does the erotic subject in general. Paradoxically, women understand the Japanese bondage ritual as a self-determined, symbolic captivation. Testimonies speak of bondage being perceived as a liberation of precisely those ties. The women in Araki’s photos seem untouchable in a strange way.
Araki is worshipped by millions like a pop star in Japan and women are eager to be photographed by Araki.
Having published over 350 books (and still more every year) Araki is considered one of the most prolific artists alive or dead in Japan and around the world. He has been arrested several times for breaking Japanese obscenity laws, and the curator of a museum was once arrested for displaying Araki’s work.
To be continued…