Taka Ishii Gallery Photography / Film
New Gallery Space Opening Exhibition
Dates: Feb 18 – Mar 26, 2011
Opening reception: Friday, Feb 18, 19:00 – 22:00

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Taka Ishii Gallery Tokyo / Kyoto is pleased to announce the opening of our third exhibition space, Taka Ishii Gallery Photography / Film in Roppongi (Tokyo). Our inaugural exhibition will be The Theater of Love, a solo presentation by Nobuyoshi Araki.

I found a cabinet sized box labeled ‘Theater of Love’. I opened it to find about 150 prints. It’s from around ‘65. Back then I used to click away with my Olympus Pen F, making these patchy prints using thermal development on purpose; the woman, the era, and the place are all photographed there, it’s all expressed. So, I used to say ‘Theater of Love’ back then, eh. Well, anyway, it’s good, huh, they are good photos. This sort of thing isn’t going to happen on digital.

Nobuyoshi Araki, December 2010

Araki graduated from Chiba University Faculty of Engineering in 1963, and began working at Dentsu. As Araki himself notes, “My Dentsu era was my training era,” the nine years that Araki worked for the firm was a time spent experimenting with photography beyond the parameters of the company. Concurrently, from around 1964, he began constructing handmade photo books by pasting prints directly into a sketchbook, and by 1970 he had self-published the 26 volume Xeroxed Photo Albums using the facilities available at work, radically pursuing the practice of editing within photo books.

In 1968 Araki met Yoko Aoki (maiden name), who worked in a different department at Dentsu, whom he married her three years later in 1971.Sentimental Journey, published the same year as a limited edition of 1,000, follows the couple’s honeymoon from an extremely personal viewpoint, dispassionately presented on a timeline—already revealing at this stage, Araki’s 40 year long determination to develop an extremely intense relationship with the subject in his photography.

This exhibition will feature approximately 100 of Araki’s unpublished cabinet size photographs, taken around 1965 during his Dentsu years. This is an opportunity to observe the origins of a photographer who celebrated his 70th birthday last year.

Nobuyoshi Araki new publication Theater of Love
Retail price: TBC, Published by Taka Ishii Gallery (2011), limited edition of 1,000, soft cover, 119 B & W photo reproductions, H133 x W180 mm, release date: 18 February, 2011

Prior to the opening in February, please contact the Taka Ishii Gallery primary exhibition space to receive additional information about Taka Ishii Gallery Photography / Film:

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