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Exhibiting May 5 - July 2, 2005

(b. 1953)




“ I often think of my work as a visual haiku. It is an attempt to evoke and suggest through as few elements as possible rather than to describe with tremendous detail....perhaps most intriguing of all is the possibility to photograph what is impossible for the human eye to see – cumulative time”


You can read more about Michael Kenna below, or go straight to his image gallery.

To find out more about this artist or arrange to view the works in person please contact katestevens@hackelbury.co.uk

Michael Kenna is widely recognised as the foremost landscape photographer of his generation, his career now spanning over thirty years. Often working at dawn or during the night, Kenna explores and illuminates the effects that human civilisation has on the natural world, recording the sculptural evidence and traces that man leaves behind.

“Michael Kenna's quiet approach to the environment provides a glimpse into the provocative and subtle serenity of landscape photography. Michael creates dream-like scenes by combining innovative and traditional photographic techniques. The results are soft, stark, enigmatic views of gardens, industrial sites, land, and seascapes from around the world. Water may become a sea of mist or the geometry of human intervention contrasted with a wispy cloud-filled sky. His photographs suggest contemplation and a poetic vision” © Photo Review, January 2003 by Carole Glauber

Michael Kenna was born in 1953 in Widnes, Lancashire, in the industrial northwest of England, giving him an empathy for industry and the working environment which he returned to in his later photographic works. He studied at the Banbury School of Art and the London College of Printing, graduating with distinction in 1976. It was in this year that he first encountered Bill Brandt, who became one of his major influences; Kenna also cites as influences the European masters Emerson, Atget and Sudek as well as the Americans Stieglitz, Sheeler and Callahan. All these photographers have clearly informed and inspired his unique vision.

In London, Michael undertook advertising photography while pursuing his personal work - photographing the landscape. In 1977, he moved to San Francisco. There he met Ruth Bernhard and became her assistant and photographic printmaker for eight years. Since settling in San Francisco, Kenna has photographed in Europe, Japan and the USA, often returning to the same locations and revisiting recurring themes: an indeterminate time of day or night, a visual structure which emphasises harmonious or contrasting forms, and an enveloping aura of suffuse light or atmospheric mist.

“Considered together, his images leave a striking impression that vastly different locations have been rendered as if they were all empty theatrical sets. Kenna transforms a place into a stage, on which all the drama of human life can be imagined”
Mark Johnstone.

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The subject of over 20 books and hundreds of solo exhibitions (now averaging around 14 each year worldwide) throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States, Kenna’s exquisitely crafted prints are also included in such permanent museum collections as The National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Biblioteque Nationale, Paris; Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona, USA; George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, USA; Hallmark Collection, Kansas City, Kansas, USA; Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Paris, France; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, USA; Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; The Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague; and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

In 2001, Michael Kenna was made a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by the Ministry of Culture in France.

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© 2005 Hackelbury Fine Art, Ltd. Copyright for all images is held by the respective artist or estate and they may not be reproduced in any form without express premission. All rights reserved.