Araki is fascinated above all by the things that surround him in his daily existence, be it buildings, flowers, plants, women, food or the skies above Tokyo. For Araki, everything in his environment is equally picture-worthy, so he takes photographs without making any distinction between subjects for their supposed ‘significance’ or lack of the same.

The fascination of the female body, not least in a state of abandoned ecstasy, is a constantly recurring theme in Araki’s work. His ‘eroticizing’ gaze, however, driven by the desire to lose himself and all his senses in the subject he is portraying, also takes in the sensuous surfaces of seductive foods or the intense colours deep inside a flower.

Does Araki also portray the smells?

Bob van Orsouw