Michael Kenna: A 20 Year Retrospective
by Michael Kenna
from Nazraeli Press
Mont St Michel
by Michael Kenna
from Nazraeli Press
The small tidal island of Mont St Michel is situated just off the Normandy coast, connected to the mainland by a single causeway. Its abbey rises like a mirage, high above the sea, on this craggy, rocky perch. It is a spectacular sight, and one that Kenna has been drawn to many times over the years. By day, the island - a popular tourist destination - is alive with cars, buses, people, noise. It can seem a garish place. But at night, it becomes as originally intended: a place for peace, for prayer, for quiet contemplation. It is that gentler face of Mont St Michel that Kenna wanted to photograph and, after the crowds have gone home, he has been able to do so. Alone, he has climbed the bell tower, explored the crypts and chapels, and ambled along the silent lanes of the island. He has watched, totally undisturbed, as the light changed, shadows came and went, and clouds subtley floated this way and that. While his camera shutter was open for long, long exposures, Kenna cherished the silence, lost in his own private thoughts. He sees these photographs as a personal record of this time of solitary exploration; it is a record we are privileged to share. Kenna has dedicated this book to his father and, in a deeply affecting introduction, he describes the connection he feels between this solid, calm, inspirational place and his much-loved parent.
Michael Kenna: "Half Light" (Observer Observed DVD Series, #3)
The Joy of Giving Something Observer Observed Series is an ongoing series of short documentary videos in DVD format, which showcases photographers at work and in conversation. It allows photographers to explain, in their own words, their interests, motivations and goals.
Le Notre's Gardens
by Eric T. Haskell
from R A M Publications, U S A
Ratcliffe Power Station
by Michael Kenna
from Nazraeli Press
The Rouge
Michael Kenna crafts an eloquent eulogy for the industrial age in 50 photographs of the Ford Motor Company's Rouge River plant near Detroit. His dramatic sense of light and shadow gives these photos hallucinatory beauty; smoke and fumes curling from smokestacks are as evocative as fog shrouding the bridges of Paris or Prague. Kenna brings a romantic, even pastoral sensibility to architectural history, particularly to landmarks that are on the verge of redemption or extinction. Introduction and captions by Ford historian Lee R. Kollins explain the auto manufacturing process with engrossing precision.
Night Walk (Untitled)
+++
