ARAKI NOBUYOSHI
ANBAKO ("DARK BOX")
Includes an original signed polaroid & additional booklet with a long interview by Araki
Published by Switch publishing, 2023
Book Size 13 × 16 cm
Pages 288 pages
Binding Hardcover, Slipcase
Language Japanese
Nobuyoshi Araki has spent five years photographing his neighborhood. At three in the afternoon, he leaves the house and takes photographs – of the sky, of flowers, of the streets. Now past 80 years of age, his desire for images has only grown stronger. “My paradise was the neighborhood,” Araki says about his new book “Anbako” (“dark box” or “camera obscura” in Japanese). “Being alive is what’s important. That’s what I’m recording in photographs.”
Through his photographs of the neighborhoods, Araki has been taken on a journey into the past. His first encounter with a camera. Seeing his elementary school upside-down in the viewfinder of his father’s camera obscura. All alone, in a world of silence. But, says Araki, it was warmth that he sensed there, not loneliness.
Araki chose to honor this early memory, this decisive encounter, by using it in the title of his new book.
“I designed the first and last pages of ‘Anbako’ upside-down. It’s a trip into my memories for me.”
“Anbako” will be released on May 25, 2023 – Nobuyoshi Araki’s 83rd birthday.