Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Araki became known for pushing boundaries with his "sex photography", straddling the line between art and pornography. In 1977, Araki began working for the Tokyo magazine New Self and at the same time began publishing two series, Actresses and Pseudo-Reportage for Weekend Super magazine, the precursor to Photo Age magazine. Photo Age and Araki published a series of prankish articles baiting the censorship laws in Japan throughout the 1980s, responding to new legislation by deliberately flaunting it. One article contained images of only pubic hair after the showing of genitals was made illegal, for example, and then, once the display of pubic hair was also made illegal, was followed by a series of images of shaved genitals with pubic hair hand-drawn over the image. In 1988 a series of Araki's contributions to Photo Age were so explicit that Japanese authorities had an entire issue of the magazine recalled and the magazine was eventually forced to close due to escalating legal costs. He also worked for Japanese Playboy during this period, as well as Japanese photography magazine Camera Mainichi. In other words, people wanted something new but that wasn’t broadly provided by the mainstream realm. Thus, as the study puts it, “People subjectively project and act to change the situation of sexuality.” A revolution may not have occurred to a wholesale degree, but mindsets had changed, and the Glory Hole establishments almost became the subversive manifestation of this newfound desire. In 1981, Araki directed High School Girl Fake Diary ( 女高生偽日記, Jokōsei nise nikki ), a roman porno film, for the studio Nikkatsu. [10] The film was a disappointment to Araki's fans and to fans of the pink film genre. [11] a b c d Rich, Motoko (May 5, 2018). "When an Erotic Photographer's Muse Becomes His Critic". The New York Times . Retrieved May 6, 2018. In 1992, Araki met Swiss photographer and documentary filmmaker Robert Frank who was visiting Japan. The two artists bonded over their use of the camera to work through the process of grief. The same year, Araki held his first international solo exhibition, Akt-Tokyo: Nobuyoshi Araki 1971-1991 at the Forum Stadtpark, Graz, Austria, and also published Sentimental Journey / Winter Journey 1972-1992, which documented his relationship with his wife, from their early days of blissful young love to the challenging later years when she was struggling with her illness.

Arts editor Alice Nicolov emphasizes the fact that Araki "grew up in the immediate aftermath of the atomic bombing of Japan," and that these events went on to "permeate the photographer's documentation of everyday life". Prior to Tokyo Radiation, he had experimented with the effects of extremely high temperatures on the photographic development process in his 1995 series Shukei (Last Scenery) and his 2003 series ABCD. Exposing these images to high temperatures during development caused them to degrade and warp, as if they too had been victims of radiation. In October 2013, Araki lost vision in his right eye due to a retinal artery obstruction. The 74-year-old artist used the experience as an inspiration to exhibit Love on the left eye, held on 21 June 2014 at Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo. [15]In this regard, Araki’s bold work is an empowering expose of women defying objectification. “Women? They are Gods,” he once said, and as such, he rendered them with a fine art brush even in the gaudy world of gritty urban life. This juxtaposition is a fascinating feat within his work, placing a sense of objectification and normality alongside power and Venus-like interplay.

Araki was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008; he underwent successful surgery to remove the tumor. [13] Araki developed an autobiographical mode of working with images that he calls 'I-Photography' ( shi-shashin), in which his photography documents his life and the lives of those around him, recording the details and private moments they share. Nothing is off limits as a subject for the camera, with Araki even documenting his wife's deathbed. This way of working is inspired by the 'I-novel' ( shi-shōsetsu) which was prevalent in the Japanese literary scene of the early 20th century. This way of working has proven to be inspirational for subsequent generations of biographical photographers who use the medium to explore the beauty and strangeness of their own lives. Araki then worked as a commercial photographer at the Dentsu advertising agency, which he found extremely dull. He did, however, use the Dentsu facilities to further his independent photography work, even using the company's photocopier to produce one of his early photobooks, The Xerox Photo Albums (1970). He held his first solo exhibition in 1965 at Shinjuku Station Building. In 1967, Araki's father passed away. One year later, he met the woman who would become his wife whilst at work at Dentsu - essayist Yōko Aoki. Art historian Matthew Kluk notes that these two events were "pivotal" in Araki's life, writing that "Death and love would become two of the principal driving forces behind Araki's profoundly human photography." Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco [30]Martin Parr; Gerry Badger (2004). The Photobook: A History, Volume I. London: Phaidon. p.274,286. ISBN 978-0-7148-4285-1. Sex clubs, cats, rope bondage, nude women, and the bliss of newlyweds on a honeymoon are some of the most famous subjects of Nobuyoshi Araki. Probably the most famous and influential Japanese photographer of the post-war period, Araki's work is technically masterful and blurs the lines between high art, photo-biography, and pornography. His photographic practice is controversial, highly sexual, and frequently challenging to both a Western and a Japanese sense of propriety and personal expression. Japanese photography critic and historian Iizawa Kōtarō explains that "Sentimental Journey is structured like a shishōsetsu, or 'I-novel,' sometimes called a 'personal novel,' a Japanese literary form in which the first-person narrator delves deep into the intricacies of personal relationships. [...] The photographs in Sentimental Journey function as the text of an 'I-novel' might, delicately stitching together the story of the artist's relationship with a close other. He would later dub the technique shishashin, rendered in English as 'I-photography' or 'personal photography.' The form went on to become one of the important currents running through Japanese photographic expression." Araki himself asserted, "I believe it is the 'I-novel' that is the very closest artistic form to photography. In the middle of his career, Araki produced an extensive series of photographs of bondage, specifically kinbaku, literally "the beauty of tight binding", which was a formal system of ritualistic bondage developed during the Edo period (1603-1867) from a method used for binding criminals and prisoners. In this image the tight ropes restrict and frame the breasts and nipples of the model, who looks across the image and away from the camera. Whilst sexually charged, the image is also aesthetically interesting, with the shadows of the ropes and disturbed clothing further marking the skin of the model and her disheveled hair disrupting the stereotype of an immaculately formal and composed Japanese courtesan. Whilst the woman in the image does not appear to be in pain, her expression is ambiguous, and does not suggest sexual excitement or enthusiastic participation, a factor which complicates the relationship of the viewer to the action represented. This ambiguity is particularly complicated when seen within a context of the excessive sexualization and infantilization of Japanese women that characterizes much pornography. Photography for the Afterlife. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2014. ISBN 978-4582278118. With an essay by Mario Perniola, "Araki's Hell".

Along that radical journey, Araki captured the transition of his country. “Photography is about a single point of a moment,” he said. “It’s like stopping time. As everything gets condensed in that forced instant. But if you keep creating these points, they form a line which reflects your life.” The radicalism that Araki depicts in his collected moments displays how the culture of Japan rapidly changed in the post-war bohemian boom spurred on by the boldly different bands washing ashore. Kurt Easterwood, " Araki's latest work born of his fight with cancer", Japanexposures.com, 7 October 2009. Accessed October 24, 2010.Tokyo Biyori (1997) – a biographical drama based on the life of Yoko Araki, the wife of Nobuyoshi Araki. Written by Nobuyoshi Araki and Ryo Iwamatsu, and directed by Naoto Takenaka. The Araki couple were portrayed by Naoto Takenaka and Miho Nakayama. Araki makes a cameo as a train conductor. [28] Frank, Priscilla (February 21, 2018). "Will Nobuyoshi Araki Be Photography's Last Legendary Dirty Old Man? (NSFW)". The Huffington Post.