Araki Nobuyoshi's Aesthetic Research On Photographic Art

As a famous contemporary Japanese photographer,Araki Nobuyoshi is known to the public for his unique "Private photo" photography.He has become one of the most controversial figures in the history of photography in the world today because of his extreme exploration of photography aesthetics and concepts.The artistic characteristics of his photography are mainly reflected in the three aspects of "Anti-traditional documentary photography","Private documentary photography" and "Playing photography".In his works,there is always a sorrowful tone.He uses “Anti-traditional documentary photography” to constantly express the beautiful female body and the nostalgia for childhood in Tokyo.The feminine beauty is vividly expressed under his lens,which reveals the sense of sorrow and sorrow in the glitz of the world.With the artistic behavior of "private documentary photography",he shoots a large number of "Erotic" pictures as diary to express his ultimate philosophical thoughts about life,death and sex.In his later years,with the attitude of “playing photography”,Araki Nobuyoshi was able to reconstruct and reinterpret the photographic works,to redefine the value of his visual aesthetic by means of collage,cut,graffiti,and calligraphy,etc.These unique visual expressions and interpretations of controversial audiences have formed his unique photographic aesthetics.At present,there are many studies on the Araki and Araki’s photography in the domestic and foreign countries,but lacking of the studies which from the perspective of aesthetics and philosophy.This paper focuses on this weak link.Through the analysis of the Araki’s unique life experience,the thought of "photography is life" and the social background,the author explored the aesthetics of photographic art systematically using relevant theories of aesthetics and philosophy.This paper are mainly divided into five parts: preface,the body(three chapters)and conclusion.In the foreword,it sorts out the background of the research related to this article,comments the research status of Araki’s in domestic and foreign,explicates the worth and the innovation,defines the related concepts,as well as introduced the main content and research methods of this paper.The first chapter composes the development of Araki’s photographic art.Starting with the photographic history of Japan after world war II,the author discusses the important position of Araki in Japan and even the world in the photographic history,and probes into the four stages of the development of Araki’s photographic art.The second chapter studies the aesthetic characteristics of Araki’s photography.By the analysis of his choice of “Anti-traditional documentary photography”,behavior of “Private documentary photography”and attitude of “playing photography”,the author puts forward aesthetic characteristic “Things cause grief”,“Eros” and “Mechanical beauty” from the perspective of the relevant aesthetic theory,analyze the profound meaning behind the aesthetic characteristics.Chapter three traces Araki’s aesthetic thought of photography and explores its reason from his social environment,historical background,personal experience,etc.In conclusion,the author summarizes the value of Araki’s aesthetic characteristics and its significance in the world,reflects the endless exposure,trial and gaze of the female body from male prospective.In the appendix,the author has compiled the chronology of the Araki and the photographic collections,photography theory works and photography exhibitions that are of great significance to him,and has summarized his representative photographs taken from 1964 to 2010.