The Art of Collaboration

Powerful and honest, those are the words that describe Nobuyoshi Araki’s work as a photographer. He is Japan’s most famous living photographer and rightly so, as his photographs are unapologetically erotic yet provocative and beautiful. Bottega Veneta taps Nobuyoshi Araki has their photographer for the brand’s Spring Summer 2015 advertising campaign, shot in Tokyo. The campaign features both the women’s and men’s collections and is the latest addition in Bottega Veneta’s ongoing series of creative collaborations featuring talents of acclaimed artists.

Araki’s readiness to challenge societal norms has caused upheavals and received disputes. His most prominent and controversial images are of women tightly bound in the method of erotic Japanese rope-typing known as kinbaku-bi. Submersed with themes of death and desire, domination and surrender, as well as honesty and propriety, his photographs are part of various collections which include Tate Modern in London and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

“More than simply provocative, Araki’s images have a powerful honesty and human poignancy that make them unforgettable,” says Bottega Veneta Creative Director Tomas Maier. “He has his own visual language, which I was very excited to see translated to the collection. I am pleased to say I am very happy with the results of our collaboration.”

Araki joins a long list of celebrated artists who have contributed to the creation of Bottega Veneta’s advertising portfolio. Previous collaborations include Ryan McGinley, David Sims, Pieter Hugo, David Armstrong, Ralph Gibson, Peter Lindbergh, Collier Schorr, Erwin Olaf, Jack Pierson, Mona Kuhn, Robert Polidori, Alex Prager, Robert Longo, Nan Goldin, Steven Meisel, Larry Sultan, Todd Eberle, Nick Knight, Sam Taylor-Wood, Annie Leibovitz, Tina Barney, Lord Snowdon, Stephen Shore and Philip-Lorca diCorcia.

STYLE Magazine has the exclusive Spring Summer 2015 campaign video, the video centres on some Japanese culture and flashes images of Tokyo alongside models posing serenely but intertwined throughout. Stunning and restrained.