Tokyo Vertigo

Nobuyoshi Araki was born on May 5, 1940 in Tokyo. He attended Chiba University in 1959, majoring in photography and cinema. Araki worked as an advertising photographer and began his independent work on films and photography. He is best known for the erotic nature of his works.

In 1974, Araki founded a photo-workshop school. During the 1970s and 1980s, his work was widely exhibited and also published in numerous magazines. He created films including Pseudo Diary: High School Girls and Video Love Declaration: The Actress Y's Private Life.

As Araki's work became more popular, greater opposition to it arose. Some critics concluded that his work amounted to little more than pornography. In 1992 the Japanese police shut down his Photomania Diary Exhibit. The following year several people were arrested in Tokyo on obscenity charges for selling his book, Erotos. Although his work creates controversy, his more than 80 books of pictures have established him as one of the most famous photographers in Japan. Among his books are Tokyo Comedy and Tokyo Lucky Hole.

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