Nobuyoshi Araki was born in 1940 in Japan. He completed his education at Chiba University on photography and film.
Araki, who worked in the advertising industry in the early years of his career, devoted himself entirely to photography in 1972 after leaving the Dentsu advertising agency. Apart from his sexual and erotic photographs, which are the fields he is best known for, he also includes ordinary and everyday subjects in his photographs. In many of his works, he uses women who are tied tightly with ropes in the style of Kinbaku, a Japanese bondage style. Araki published more than 400 photo books and the most famous book of him, Sentimental Journey (1971), consists of sexually explicit photos from his honeymoon with his wife, Aoki Yoko. Araki took countless photos of his wife until she passed away from ovarian cancer in 1990. Araki has been arrested many times in Japan for breaking the obscenity laws which did not have any negative effect on his reputation and influence. The artist, who also produced films, has also taken photographs of musicians such as Lady Gaga and Björk. The artist also received many important awards such as the 1994 Japan Inter-Design Forum Grand Prix, the 1990 Society Photography Award, and the 1964 Sun Prize. Araki's works are now included in many famous collections, including the London Tate Modern, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Switzerland Fotomuseum Winterhur.
Selected solo exhibitions of the artist include: Araki, Musée National des Arts Asiatiques Guimet, Paris (France); Nobuyoshi Araki Photobook Exhibition: Arākī, IZU PHOTO MUSEUM, Shizuoka (Japan); NOBUYOSHI ARAKI: Self, Life, Death, The Barbican Art Gallery, London (UK), Hana-Jinsei, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (Japan); Tokyo Still Life, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (England); Tokyo Comedy, Wiener Secession, Vienna (Austria), Journal intime, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris (France).
Nobuyoshi Araki lives and works in Tokyo.