PHOTO:Michael Kenna
Michael Kenna is one of the most influential landscape photographers of his generation, best known for his black & white landscapes. Often working at dawn or during the night, he has concentrated primarily on the interaction between the ephemeral atmospheric condition of the natural landscape, and human-made structures and sculptural mass.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo Robert Mann Gallery Archive
Michael Kenna in his solo exhibition at Robert Mann Gallery in New York, presents new works from Italy and Southeast Asia, and has revisited beloved subjects in the industrial landscape of Detroit and the urban vistas of New York City. Michael Kenna studied painting and then photography at The Banbury School of Art, later he attended The London College of Printing and began working as a photographer and artist and moved to San Francisco in 1977. The artist has set himself the goal to visit and capture remote places around the world. His way of working is deliberate, precise and often involves the use of long exposure times, sometimes lasting for several hours. With his camera and use of long exposure he captures what the eye cannot see. “When exposures last hours rather than fractions of a second, there is much time for watching… I watch the water, the leaves on the trees, passing cars, changing shadows, smoke from chimneys, whatever is around. Wind, rain, mist, etc., all have effects on the eventual image”. His carefully exposed black and white photographs, taare notable for their clear, structured compositions. His sense for mood and composition elevate his photography to art. Even pictures or landscapes that we are familiar with become transformed by his photographs into something new and unexpected. The photographic process is very important for the artist so for 20 years Kenna has used a manual Hasselblad camera (square format). He then refines his pictures in the darkroom instead of using digital image manipulation. Usually Kenna enlarges his prints up to a size of 20 x 20 cm. He has chosen this format deliberately, because it challenges the viewer to interact more actively with the picture in order to see minute details. As the artist says “I often think of my work as visual haiku. It is an attempt to evoke and suggest through as few elements as possible rather than to describe with tremendous detail”. In receiving this treatment, the majesty of nature and the grandeur of the developed city-scape is revealed in each photograph. Along the Mekong in Laos a tree enthroned by its own roots rises from the riverside becoming a living shrine to nature’s beauty. In Abruzzo, Italy the natural and man-made is celebrated in a marriage as the dual subjects of the Apennine Mountains and city’s renaissance architecture join together to enhance their shared beauty rather that compete as opposing forces. The ramparts of an Italian castle, a tree poised on the edge of a river, and the industrial factories of Detroit, though vastly different are each elevated to the highest esteem by the lens of Michael Kenna.
Info: Robert Mann Gallery, 2nd Floor, 525 West 26th Street, New York, Duration: 15/12/16-14/2/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-18:00, www.robertmann.com
