Nobuyoshi Araki is the most famous photographer you’ve probably never heard of. Having published over 450 books, Araki is the second most Googled artist in the world, beating out the likes of Andy Warhol, Picasso and Lichtenstein in sheer volume of searches. His cultural value is immense. So who is this guy anyway, and why should we care? Three words: because art matters. And the stories we choose to tell with our art matter even more, particularly when those stories deal with undertones of abuse, domination and control of a group of people. These stories become part of our cultural undercurrent, a physical reality that none of us can point to directly, but all of us know is there, like air or gravity. And in the process abuse becomes beautiful, domination becomes a creative statement, and control a matter of artistic vision.
Natalia Borecka 
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