User:10000BL/The Banquet: Books on Books No. 15 (2012)

Title: The Banquet: Books on Books No. 15

Artist:Nobuyoski Araki

Published: 2012

Vimeo

Annotation:

The book is a copy/document of the original, extended with an essay. They literally took photos of every spread of the original book.

The Banquet is a tribute to Araki's late wife Yoko through a 'photo-diary' of the food they shared together in the last months of her life. The first section of the book exist of colorful and vivid photographs of exotic and visually erotic Japanese delicacies shot with a ring flash and a macro lens. The second section of the book is an extract of Araki's journal that detail what he had consumed. The third section of the book exist of high contrast black&white pictures of food he and his wife shared after they heard that Araki's wife is dying. What holds all parts together is the presence of his wife Yoko (and the coming absence). Araki changed his photography in this project when they heard the news that his wife is dying soon. For him the meaning of the food changed, the food she prepared was full with love. The way he photographed impacted him (quote: "I can never forget the sound of that shutter's one long second. The meal was a love affair to death.").