He has been described as a genius and poet, but also as a misogynist, pornographer, and monster – yet Nobuyoshi Araki's work resists simple moralistic categorization. He himself said of his work: "There is no result. It is completely open. It has no goal." Araki's work, one of the greatest Japanese photographers of our time, is characterized by a distinctive mastery of composition, color, and tone.

"The beauty of tight binding," is the literal translation of Kinbaku-bi, the traditional Japanese art of erotic bondage, which has long fascinated the photographer and has become a focal point of his work. Araki plays with patterns of submission and liberation, death and desire, as well as the tension between the apparent calm and beauty of an image and its shocking content upon closer inspection. His models are certainly – whether in a literal or metaphorical sense – bound, but in the most seductive way: girls lie tied up yet defiant, hanging from the ceiling, in traditional attire or naked, from the front, sometimes with a flower discreetly positioned between their legs.

Araki selected his favorite shots. The result documents his unique talent for finding a balance between sexual vulnerability and seduction.