| 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.
----
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
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