KATA-ME Nobuyoshi Araki

An uncompromising gaze from the edge of light and shadow, captured by a photographer who lost sight in one eye.

Confronting the harsh reality of losing vision in his right eye while capturing the twilight of life and a transformed visual frontier, KATA-ME stands as a profoundly intimate work by Nobuyoshi Araki. Published to coincide with his 2018 exhibition of the same name at Rat Hole Gallery, the volume compiles 50 vertical monochrome photographs taken from the onset of his partial blindness onward.

Featuring familiar motifs central to Araki’s oeuvre—female nudes, withered flowers, strange toys, and skies viewed from his apartment balcony—the collection transcends a mere documentation of physical loss. Infused with a unique, bittersweet humor and an unyielding urgency, these images reflect an acute awareness of mortality intimately bound with life, serving as a powerful testament to the irrepressible urge to keep seeing and shooting.