Nobuyoshi Araki: Hi-Nikki (Non-Diary Diary)

Description

On the occasion of its 30th anniversary in 2014, the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain asked the Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki to take a photograph every day, that would then be published weekly on its website in the shape of a slide show. Getting caught in the game, Araki took more than one picture a day from May 2014 to March 2015, producing 1,250 colour photographs featuring views of Tokyo, portraits of young women, sensual still-lifes, or shots taken at restaurants or in a small bar in the district of Kabuki-cho, one of his favourite spots. The Fondation Cartier has collated all the images into one book, Hi-Nikki (Non-Diary Diary), offering a sumptuous showcase of this rich digital project and inviting the reader to dive into the daily life of a prolific artist.

Nobuyoshi Araki (Tokyo, 1940) invented the genre of the false photographic journal in 1980. Araki takes his inspiration in the history of his country, his daily life and Japanese eroticism. Situated somewhere on the border between autobiography and the diary, his work features spontaneous pictures of the sky, cats, or Tokyo neighborhoods alongside still lifes or portraits of young women in a variety of staged situations.