Michael Kenna Photographs
November 30, 2017 – December 30, 2017
Opening: Thursday, Nov 30, 5-8pm

Michael Kenna travels the world, attuned to the aesthetic, emotional, and spiritual resonance of natural and urban landscapes, which he seeks to capture in his exquisite black-and-white photographs. Kenna uses long exposure times and shoots in inclement weather to obscure the details of the vistas before him, instead emphasizing atmosphere, tonality, and form in his photographs. As he explains: “I prefer suggestion over description. I like to use the analogy of haiku poetry where just a few elements act as catalysts for one’s imagination.”

Michael Kenna was born in 1953 in Lancashire, England, into an Irish Catholic family. From an early age Kenna aspired to be a priest and, aged eleven, began studying at a seminary school. However, art quickly became his strongest subject and at the age of 17 he moved to Banbury School of Art in Oxfordshire. He studied painting and then photography, before going on to pursue a degree in photography at the London College of Printing. Initially Kenna concentrated on commercial photography, however he soon turned to landscapes. He is considered a master in the art of contemporary photography.

Kenna currently lives in Seattle, with his wife and children and continues to travel the world producing new work. He has published 48 books of his photography over his four decade career. His photographs are held in permanent collections at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Image: “Chikui Cape Trees, Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan, 2002,” by Michael Kenna ©