photobook
- Museum number
- 2007,3007.8
- Title
- Object: Tokyo wa aki: Toshi no Janarizumu 東京は、秋ー都市ジャーナリズム (Tokyo is Autumn: Journalism in the Capital)
- Description
-
Photobook. One volume. First edition.
- Production date
- 1984
- Dimensions
-
Height: 19.70 centimetres (covers)
-
Width: 13.80 centimetres (covers)
- Curator's comments
- Many photographers rate this book amongst Araki's best work. Street scenes of Tokyo taken in 1972 and 1973 just after he left Dentsu. The images are combined with a dialogue between Araki and his wife Yoko. This seemingly innocuous book conveys the essence of Araki's technique and the raison d'etre of his work. The first three images are of Golden Gai, showing the disused tram-line behind the bars. It is a location filled with nostalgia, the nondescript high-rise in the centre serving to provide a contrast to the decaying traditional two-story buildings in the foreground. The camera swings to the right to show the back façade, then goes a little closer to focus on the garbage cans. This is truly post-modern photography. By focussing on the banal and profane Araki dispenses with the beauty of the object and by doing so arrives where he wants to be, namely in photography. But Araki's images are certainly not random. As he walks around his favourite neighbourhoods he is keenly aware of the smallest details, the nature and content of billboards, stickers in a car-window, of the old, the new, and the decaying. As such this is a truly remarkable book. Only three copies in OCLC. (Titus Boeder, 4/2007)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2007
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 2007,3007.8
- Additional IDs
-
Other BM number: PB.8 (Photobook number)