Michael Kenna is a renowned photographer known for his minimalist landscape and architectural photography. He stated that "I try to create 'stage sets' for [viewers] to perform on" by capturing environments that allow viewers to imagine themselves within the scenes. Kenna works on long term photography projects over many years, returning to locations repeatedly to explore them from different perspectives.

1. 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

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

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. WHERE HAS HE WORKED?
Africa
South
Asia America
WORLD
North
Europe
America

7. 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.

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

9. INDIA 2006-2008

10. JAPAN 2003-2008

11. KOREA 2005-2010

12. CHINA 2008
Thailand 2006

13. ITALY 1980-2003

14. POLAND
Czech Republic

15. ENGLAND

16. SPAIN
Switzerland

17. NORTH AMERICA
The USA

18. MEXICO

19. AFRICA

20. SOUTH AMERICA

21. 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.”

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. MOSCOW

25. LINKS
 His publications
 Biography
 Interviews
 Images