Taiji Arita

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Taiji Arita (有田 泰而, Arita Taiji^?, born 1941) is a Japanese commercial photographer who has exhibited his noncommercial nudes and other work.

Arita was born in what is now Kitakyūshū. He entered the Faculty of Law of Chuo University (Tokyo) but dropped out in 1962; a year later he graduated from the Tokyo College of Photography. The next year he entered the advertising company Nihon Design Center (日本デザインセンター, Nihon Dezain Sentā) but from 1967 he has worked freelance as an advertising photographer, his photographs appearing in magazines; he has also worked as a movie cameraman.

From 1977 to 1979, Arita lived in Toronto. From around 1980, he has been painting in oils.

Unusually for a well known Japanese photographer, Arita has had little published in book form: The sole volume devoted to his work shows oil paintings, not photographs. But his works are widely anthologized, particularly his black and white series First Born, which shows his wife (often nude) and their first child.

[edit] Solo exhibitions

• "First Born" (ファーストボーン, Fāsuto bōn). Nikon Salon, Tokyo.^[1]
• Retrospective (有田泰而, Arita Taiji shashinten)^[2]
• "Self Portrait" (セルフポートレート, Serufu Pōtorēto)^[2]
• 百花繚乱：日本の家 (Hyakka ryōran: Nihon no ie)^[2]

[edit] Books showing Arita's works

• Rasha no mori: 1981–1987 (裸者の森：1981–1987). Tokyo: Libro Port, 1988. ISBN 4-8457-0321-1. A book of paintings.
• Nihon no shashin, 1970 jidai: Tōketsu sareta "toki" no kioku (日本の写真、1970年代：凍結された「時」の記憶). Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1991.
• Nihon nūdo meisakushū (日本ヌード名作集, Japanese nudes). Camera Mainichi bessatsu. Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1982. (Japanese) Pp. 246–47.
• Shashinka wa nani o hyōgen shita ka: 1960–1980 (写真家はなにを表現したか1960～1980, What were photographers expressing? 1960–1980). Tokyo: Konica Plaza, 1992. (Japanese) Three photographs from First Born are shown on p.66.
• Yamagishi, Shoji, ed. Japan: A Self-Portrait. New York: International Center of Photography, 1979. ISBN 0-933642-01-6 (hard), ISBN 0-933642-02-4 (paper). Pp. 75–79 show photographs from First Born.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Japan: A Self-Portrait.
2. ^ ^{a b c} According to Shashinka wa nani o hyōgen shita ka, which unfortunately doesn't specify the place.

[edit] References

• Nihon shashinka jiten (日本写真家事典) / 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers. Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. ISBN 4-473-01750-8. (Japanese) Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese.
• Shashinka wa nani o hyōgen shita ka: 1960–1980 (写真家はなにを表現したか1960～1980, What were photographers expressing? 1960–1980). Tokyo: Konica Plaza, 1992. (Japanese) A potted biography appears on pp. 93–94.