Nobuyoshi Araki
Have No Balcony
Published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2012
Size: 19.4 x 13.6
Pages: 200
Hardcover
With Obi
Ai no Balcony captures the photographer’s life against the backdrop of his balcony. The images delicately depict the early years of his life alongside his wife Yoko and the days following her death. The images depicting the moments spent in the private sanctuary of their balcony nestled above the bustling streets of Tokyo, as well as the photographs of their cat Chiro, all present a beautiful depiction of a realm, Edenic in its nature symbolic of a life before the presence of death. The black and white images narrate a journey through the private paradise of love shared by the three and the subsequent state of absence, symbolized by Araki’s balcony; a field of love, memory, and loss.