shashasha

Note: the contents of the Taka Ishii gallery's publication and the Shinchosha's publication of the same name are entirely different.

After having an operation for prostate cancer the previous year, Araki worked quickly to produce this work. This is a diary that depicts daily “things” and “feelings about death” with calligraphy, painting and collages on his black-white photos of the sky, which are used here as a kind of canvas. The first 254 photographs of the series, produced from January 2 to August 15, were published by Shinchosha in a limited edition of 1000 copies. The final 144 photographs, produced from August 16 until the end of the year, are included in this book. Araki has dealt with grief in his work before, confronting the deaths of his father, mother, and wife Yoko; he has, indeed, turned this grief into his very power for taking photographs. This book represents a confrontation with his own death. A solo exhibition of the same title was held at Taka Ishii Gallery in December 2009.