ARAKI - Tokyo Lucky Hole

The year is 1985, Japan’s sex industry is in his golden age and Nobuyoshi Araki, with his camera, was there.

In the over 800 photos of Tokyo Lucky Hole, Araki documents the spirit of the Shinjuku neighbourhood before the regulation from the Japan government.

If you approach the book with a prejudicial mindset, almost all the photos have pornographic content.

But the truth is that, for how explicit those photos are, they are not pornographic. There is not a voyeuristic intent, there is not any intention to excite the viewer with the body and the act shown in the photos; there are no perfect bodies, there is not a planned photoset. In the photos there are not models or actors: are displayed only humans. In my own opinion, Araki has adopted the street photographer approach to a complex argument such as sexuality, in the making of the photos.

The Japanese photographer has captured the truth of 1985 sex clubs scenes in his country, what was going on there and capturing some shadows of one of the most important parts of a human being life: sexuality.

Published by Tasken, the book has good general quality but the format chosen by the publisher force some photos to be printed on two pages, that on a book of this dimension, “ruins” some photos.

My two cents: this book is ideal for those that are curious about new ways to read the reality of human nature and suggested for those in need of inspiration for new photo projects but don’t want to stay stuck with the stereotypical fine-arts nudes or street photography.

Some pictures from the book are below (the most family-friendly).

I hope you enjoyed this review.

To the next blog!