Photographer Michael Kenna celebrates fifty years of career.
On this occasion, Nazraeli Press publishes the book “Photographs and stories”. This new monograph, printed on Japanese Kasadaka paper, is published in association with the Center for Photographic Art and coincides with the opening in November 2023 of a traveling exhibition in their historic exhibition space in Carmel, California, followed by an exhibition at Robert Mann Gallery in New York.
Michael Kenna selected an image for each year beginning in 1973, when he enrolled at Banbury School of Art. For each photograph, he writes a short text and examines its connection with his own life at the time.
Michael Kenna is undoubtedly the most influential landscape photographer of his generation. Often working at dawn or during the night, he focused primarily on the interaction between the ephemeral atmospheric conditions of the natural landscape and man-made structures and sculptural masses.
More than ninety books and catalogs have been published on his work. His signature gelatin silver prints, made by himself, have been exhibited around the world and are part of permanent collections of museums such as the National Gallery, Washington, D.C., the Shanghai Art Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum from London.
In 2022, Michael Kenna donated to the French State a print of all of his work, as well as his negatives and archives. He was elevated to the rank of Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.
“This book is a journey, navigating places foreign and familiar, winding through black and white scenes where calm invades the space. It is a great pleasure to look at these pictures, to feel that, perhaps, everything will be fine after all, that the world is not so bad and that magic still exists. There is a reassuring quality to these photographs, and I for one am grateful to Michael Kenna for the half century spent observing light and conveying his vision.”
Excerpt from the introduction by Ann Jastrab, director of the Center of Photography, Carmel, California.
Book :
Michael Kenna : Photographs and stories
Nazraeli Press
Hardcover
29.2cm x 33cm
106 pages
51 duotone boards.
ISBN: 978-1-59005-593-9
https://www.nazraeli.com/complete-catalogue/michael-kenna-photographs-and-stories
Exhibitions :
December 14 – January 31 Michael Kenna – Photographs and Stories exhibition. Robert Mann Gallery, New York City, New York, USA.
https://www.robertmann.com/
January 5 – February 3. Michael Kenna – Photographs and Stories exhibition.
K.O.N.G. Gallery, Seoul, South Korea.
https://www.konggallery.com/
May 11 – June 8. Michael Kenna. Fifty Years exhibition.
Gallery Art Unlimited, Tokyo, Japan.
http://www.artunlimited.co.jp/
