Nobuyoshi Araki and Juergen Teller: Leben und Tod

Description

Leben und Tod is the latest collaboration between these two seminal photographers and is the culmination of their joint exhibition at artspace AM, Tokyo, in 2019. This intensely personal project concentrates on Teller's series "Leben und Tod" (Life and Death), which reflects upon the death of his uncle and step-father Artur, juxtaposing photographs of his mother and homeland in Bubenreuth, Bavaria, with symbolic images of fertility and life on holiday in Bhutan with his partner Dovile Drizyte. Inspired by this series, Araki asked to photograph Teller's "childhood memory objects," items of particular emotional significance to him and his parents. Teller eagerly collected such personal gems, among them toys, a porcelain figurine and bridges made in the family's violin workshop; the resulting images by Araki are haunting yet playful, creating an intriguing narrative alongside the original story. This book embodies the deep affection and admiration between Araki and myself. At the gallery opening, he announced to the audience of journalists that I am like his son! I was overwhelmed with joy. - Juergen Teller

Born in 1940 in Tokyo, where he today lives and works, Nobuyoshi Araki worked in advertising after completing his studies in photography and film at Chiba University; he devoted himself exclusively to photography from the mid-1960s. Araki's oeuvre spans erotic portraits of women, artificial still lifes, images of plants, documentary-style depictions of everyday life, architectural photography, as well as diaristic photos of himself and his deceased wife Yoko. He has published around 400 books, shown in many international exhibitions, and his work is part of important collections worldwide. Steidl has published Araki's Impossible Love (2018). Juergen Teller, born in Erlangen, Germany, in 1964, studied at the Bayerische Staats - lehranstalt fur Photographie in Munich. His work has been published in influential magazines such as Vogue, System, i-D, POP and Arena Homme+, and has been the subject of solo exhibitions including those at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris and Martin-GropiusBau in Berlin. Teller won the prestigious Citibank Photography Prize in 2003, and from 2014 to 2019 held a professorship at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste Nurnberg. His books with Steidl include Louis XV (2005), Marc Jacobs Advertising, 1998-2009 (2009), Siegerflieger (2015), The Master IV (2019) and Handbags (2019).

This book thus becomes a series of bridges, from Teller to Araki, then back to Teller, and now to us, as visual and emotional participants. What superficially could be mistaken for a family album takes on a higher meaning - the melding of personal approaches of each of these photographers, combining elements from two cultures to a commonly shared experience, can have meaning for all of us as the details are contemplated [...] this photobook is an interesting challenge that takes us from the personal to the universal. Take a good look inside it and inside yourself.--Gerhard Clausing "Photobook Journal"