On My Stand - May 2024: ”Photographs & Stories” by Michael Kenna
What I'm Enjoying This Month
Quick Recap: I decided to have a local artist build a book display stand for me so I could view my collection of artbooks throughout a given month: selecting one each month and then periodically turning the pages to see more of the content. This publication is a brief snapshot of what’s “on my stand” this month. See the genesis of this idea HERE. See last month’s book HERE. And to be clear: Unless otherwise identified in the text, I do NOT own any of the images you’ll see in this publication nor am I claiming any credit for having any part in producing them.
”Photographs & Stories” by Michael Kenna
This month’s pick is another one of my newer acquisitions: Photographs & Stories by renowned photographer, Michael Kenna. Kenna is an English photographer best known for his unusual black and white landscapes featuring ethereal light achieved by photographing at dawn or at night with exposures of up to 10 hours. You can see from the photos below (all taken from this book) that he has an insightful approach to capturing seemingly mundane images with a very specific aesthetic.
The image above (“Spring…”) has a certain cinematic quality to it - like we’re getting ready to see something happen in a theatrical kind of way. Or maybe it’s like we’re wondering if something is ABOUT to happen or did something JUST happen that we missed. Either way, I love sense of anticipation and wonder this photo evokes.
The images on the two pages shown above reveal Kenna’s strong connection to two of photography’s bedrock compositional elements: lines and light. Even though the subjects of the photos are not particularly engaging in and of themselves, Kenna’s intentional renderings draw the audience into the photos due to his careful composition: the lights in “Golden Gate Bridge, Study 5” and the dock in “Look Out…” both create a satisfactory viewing experience due to Kenna’s choice to feature them strongly in the photos.
Sometimes, the very act of relinquishing control of the whys, wherefores, outcomes and destinations, results in a more fluid, productive, and creative process… - Michael Kenna
As I've mentioned before in On My Stand posts, my photo books are not only for my “viewing pleasure.” They also serve to inspire and educate me as an artist. You can see an example of that with the photos below. The photo on the left is from Kenna’s book in which he allows the subject (the tree) to stand out from its background in order to highlight the singular nature of its existence in the photo. The second photo is one I took at sunrise in the desert. Beneath the two photos is my example edited as a black and white format…which do you prefer? - and don’t say Michael Kenna’s :-)
The images in Photographs & Stories are representative samples from Kenna’s fifty-year career as a photographer. Photos were curated to represent one from each year of his photographic journey. This makes for a fantastic retrospective of this gifted artist’s work.
More to come from Kenna’s book in my mid-May post!
Purchasing Note: You can purchase this book from Nazraeli Press HERE.