I went to one of his exhibitions a few years ago and I was struck, on seeing his prints, by his ideas, and for want of a better word, his sincerity. This doesn't (to me) come across in his books. He's a very interesting and prolific artist.
An interesting point - I work with many female models and when we chat about photographers they like, Araki is often mentioned. For the FW one camera, one roll of film meet last year, I shot a pair of twins from Kazakhstan (as you do). Day jobs: international lawyer and industrial economist. Fave film waster: Araki-san. Art critics, curators and art theorists put Araki all-too-often into the pornographer/misogynist school, which hardly calls for the structuring of a compelling argument. A more interesting point is why do so many, relatively conservative, females like his work? & he famously has a never-ending source of Japanese women who want to sit for him.
