Araki Nobuyoshi (born 1940) stands as one of the most widely recognized Japanese photographers of the 20th century. While employed by the magazine SM Sniper in 1979, he began to photograph women in bondage, collaborating with trained bakushi (practitioners of kinbaku) such as Watanabe Yasuji (born 1966). Araki’s first models were typically amateur volunteers, but since his rise to international fame, his models have included celebrities such as Lady Gaga.