Taiji Arita

was a Japanese commercial photographer who exhibited non-commercial nudes and other work, and later a painter and sculptor.

Early life

Taiji Arita was born on January 31, 1941, in what is now Kitakyūshū, Japan. After briefly studying law at Chuo University, he opted to instead pursue a career as a photographer and studied under Yasuhiro Ishimoto at Tokyo College of Photography.

Artistic career

Photography From 1964 to 1966 Arita worked at Nippon Design Center; from 1967 to 1977 he freelanced for numerous publishers and the advertising industry, also working as a movie cameraman. a series of monochrome and color images of his first wife and son taken over three years. That same year, Arita left Tokyo for Ontario where he continued freelance photography for Canadian and Japanese advertising and publishing industries.

In 1980, he returned to Tokyo and opened Arita Studio, specializing in photography for advertising and publishing industries and cinematography for television commercials. Among his photographic assistants was Yoshihiko Ueda. He married Masako Koiso in 1984.

Painting From about 1980 on, Arita started to paint in oils as well as continuing to be active as a photographer. In 1988, he published "The Forest of the Naked", a collection of 71 paintings of the human figure in contorted positions. Arita's paintings are similar to his photographs in transforming the physical body into part of an object.

Solo exhibitions 1977 Fāsuto bōn / "First Born". Ginza Nikon Salon, Tokyo. 1980 Arita Taiji shashinten / "Retrospective". Photo Gallery International, Tokyo. 1989 Akai tsuchi / "Red Earth". Gallery Face, Tokyo (paintings) 2009 "Fruit of the Redwoods" (with Masako Arita). Art3g, Fort Bragg, CA (reliefs)

Selected group exhibitions 1978 "Japan: A self portrait", International Center for Photography, New York (photographs) 2010 "Out of the Woods", NorthCoast Artist Gallery, Fort Bragg CA (reliefs) 2010 "Pas de Deux", Odd Fellows Hall, Mendocino CA (paintings) 2010 "New American Art", Odd Fellows Hall, Mendocino CA (paintings) 2010 "Watakushi o mite: Nūdo no pōtoreito" . Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. 2011 "Work & Love", Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino CA (paintings & reliefs) 2012 "Taiji Arita Memorial Retrospective & Group Show" Odd Fellows Hall, Mendocino CA (sketches, paintings & sculptures)

Permanent collections Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography Sapporo Art Park (Sapporo)

Publications showing Arita's works

"First Born", serialized in Camera Mainichi, May 1973 – February 1975. Shōji Yamagishi, ed. Japan: A Self-Portrait. New York: International Center of Photography, 1979. / . (This should not be confused with the 2004 book Japan, a Self-Portrait: Photographs 1945–1964, ed. Osamu Hiraki and Keiichi Takeuchi.) Rasha no mori: Arita Taiji, 1981–1987 / The Forest of the Naked: Taiji Arita, 1981–1987. Tokyo: Libro Port, 1988. . A book of paintings. Nihon no shashin, 1970 jidai: Tōketsu sareta "toki" no kioku / Japanese Photography in the 1970s: Memories Frozen in Time. Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1991. Pp. 98–107. Nihon nūdo meisakushū (, Japanese nudes). Camera Mainichi bessatsu. Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1982. Pp. 246–47. PURE Taiji Arita in California: Life & Work: Blurb Books, 2012, ed. Inga Peterson and Jason Cowan. A photographic chronicle of Arita's daily life & artwork from 1991-2011.