Howdy! Happy New Year – it’s been a while. Writing and updates forthcoming here, but for now, just a brief note – a photo haunting.

I think Twitter is behaving like tumblr in its golden age – I keep discovering random things (mind you, without the algorithm) by searching for terms that generate unintended results. A couple days ago, I came across a series of pictures that haven’t left my mind. They’re shots of Yoko Araki, the late wife of Japanese erotic photographer Nobuyoshi Araki. They come from several of his photobooks, one of which documented his honeymoon with Yoko in 1971 and another which shows Yoko’s dying from cancer and its aftermath.

I am attracted to how the photos convey the ease of the quiet, the mundane, the ease, and the pleasure of being with someone and in the domestic. There’s Nobuyoshi’s gaze – that of the artist, the lover/voyeur/partner, the narrator – but Yoko seems to retain herself even as she receives the camera. I simultaneously relate and desire.

Accompanying photos: one | two | three | four | five

Related articles: Cercle Magainze | Nobuyoshi Araki’s photographed diary brings his wife to life
Where to purchase: Sentimental Journey