MICHAEL KENNA"I expect a viewer to be able to enter an image and react with the environment. I try to create "stage sets" for them to perform on."

By Daria Zinchuk group 202

"I feel closer to the elements when I photograph at night, close to nature because I have to watch."

WHO IS HE? Michael Kenna is a critically acclaimed

photographer and master printer. He works all over the world over the past few years. Sometimes his work is specific to a project, an exhibition, book or commission and at other times it is just exploration. He values being a member of Arts London Alumni for the way it keeps him in touch with his own history and the sense of continuity it gives him.

THE BIOGRAPHY Michael Kenna was born in 1953, in Widnes, Lancashire, an

industrial town in the north-west of England. He attended St Joseph’s College, Upholland, a Catholic seminary school from 1964 to 1972, and went on to the Banbury School of Art, Oxfordshire, for a year before starting a three-year course in photography at the London College of Printing. He graduated with distinction in 1976.“In my early years, I was [quite] good in the arts, painting in particular, and that’s what I wanted to do at the time. However, after spending some time at the Banbury School of Art, I realized that there wasn’t [much of] a chance I would survive as a painter living in England. I studied photography in part because I knew I could at least attempt a living doing commercial and advertising work.”His interest in more artistic work was sparked during “The Land” exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1975, directed by the photographer Bill Brandt. Kenna acknowledges Brandt’s major influence on his work, along with that of other great European photographers such as Atget, Emerson and Sudek, or Americans with as widely different aesthetic positions as Bernhard, Callahan, Sheeler and Stieglitz.

THE BIOGRAPHY While working commercially in his early career, he went on with his

own research, concentrating primarily on the landscape. “[I pursued more personal work] as a hobby, [and that continued for a number of] years …” In the late seventies, he moved to the United States and eventually settled in San Francisco. There he met Ruth Bernhard (1905-2006), a legendary photographer, most famous for her nude studies, but also well known for her still lifes. For over ten years, he helped her with printing, a field in which she was a stickler for quality. “I learned an immense amount from Ruth. She [was] a remarkable and unique woman.... She has been a very powerful [influence on my life and work].” Kenna later moved to Portland, Oregon, then to Seattle, Washington, where he is now living.Kenna constructs his work in large chapters, long-term projects which may require him to go back to places he already knows and has photographed many times, exploring them over and over again.“I like to be working on three or four projects at once, and even when these projects are supposedly finished I often continue working on them indefinitely.” These projects often take as much as seven or eight years to complete. This was the case for The Rouge, Le Nôtre’s Gardens, Monique’s Kindergarten, Japan, Ratcliffe Power Station or Mont St Michel. Sometimes the work takes even longer: his study of concentration camps, exhibited in 2000 — and donated to France — took over ten years and led him to the sites of all the Nazi camps still remaining.

WHERE HAS HE WORKED?

Asia South America

EuropeNorth

America

WORLD

Africa

HOW HE WORKS AND INFLUENCE OF PHOTOS ON HIS PERSONALITY

Michael Kenna: There are many characteristics associated with night photography that make it fascinating. We are used to working with a single light source, the sun, so multiple lights that come from an assortment of directions can be quite surreal, and theatrical. Drama is usually increased with the resulting deep shadows from artificial lights. These shadows can invite us to imagine what is hidden. I particularly like what happens with long exposures, for example, moving clouds produce unique areas of interesting density in the sky, stars and planes produce white lines, rough water transforms into ice or mist, etc. Film can accumulate light and record events that our eyes are incapable of seeing. The aspect of unpredictability inherent with night exposures can also be a good antidote for previsualization. I find it helps with jet lag too! Indeed my first night photograph, made in 1977 of a set of swings in upstate New York, was a direct consequence of not being able to sleep. At the time I used the "empirical method" of exposure measurement, (i.e. trial and error), with much bracketing. The results were very interesting and since then I've worked on my technique a little.

LET’S HAVE A LOOK AT HOW HE SEES THE WORLD

INDIA 2006-2008

JAPAN 2003-2008

KOREA 2005-2010

CHINA 2008

Thailand 2006

ITALY 1980-2003

POLAND

Czech Republic

ENGLAND

SPAIN

Switzerland

NORTH AMERICA

The USA

MEXICO

AFRICA

SOUTH AMERICA

HOW HE FEELS ABOUT HIS WORK The process of taking photos

“The whole process is satisfying for me. I love being out at odd times of the day and night, experiencing the world in fascinating places where I would want to be even if I wasn't making photographs. I love traveling and all that comes with it. I intensely dislike processing film - and fortunately there are some excellent labs around...Seeing the first proofs is always exciting, editing, making work prints, then the challenge of making final prints, even retouching the first print - all these stages are enjoyable and immensely satisfying. Then there is the exhibiting, getting reactions from others, making books, etc. Photography is immensely challenging, with a good deal of work, but I am thrilled to be a part of it.”

THE POINT OF HIS WORK

For Kenna, these images allude to the “solitary aspect of the journey through life,” he says. “We may feel connected, but we come here alone and leave alone, with no idea of what will happen next. We all know we’re going to die, but we don’t know how or when or what happens afterwards. There are many question marks, and I like photographing them.” It gives room for his imagination, and ours, to try to answer.

PUBLICATIONS

All his travellings are depicted in his books. Sometimes he writes them before the journeys, he shares his expectations and the reasons for going to a land. Some of his works were made when he was inspired by other famous photographers - Bill Brandt, Ansel Adams, Josef Sudek, Alfred Steiglitz.

MOSCOW

LINKS

His publications Biography Interviews Images