Feminism in Russia - Passport magazine

Photographic haiku
by Michael Kenna
Alevtina Kalinina
long winter
the emptiness
of words
Andrea Cecon
The name of Michael Kenna is usually associated with landscape
photography. But there is such a mystical aura about his
landscapes that they seem to be much deeper than just flat
rectangular images. They resemble gentle ink or watercolor
paintings, as if they contain the whole essence of the place they
were taken in. No matter whether these photos are of the French
provinces, Japanese gardens, American car factories, St Petersburg
sculptures or Venetian canals, they are of regular format
8 by 8 inches. Black and white. Selective focus. Deep shadows.
Misty and mystical. Minimalistic. Evocative.
Using literary language, one could say his works are haiku
rather than full-length prose. Kenna himself says that he prefers
the “power of suggestion over description”. “We are part of the
landscape and the landscape is part of us,” Kenna says. And one
of his basic principles in photography is first to get acquainted
with a place, to have a conversation with it, get its permission
for a shot or maybe return there a second time with a new approach.
His favorite time for work is the early morning, dusk or
even night, then Kenna uses exposures that last up to 10 hours.
The film in this case accumulates the time and events, things that
are impossible for the human eye to take in. “When you make
four-hour exposures in the middle of the night, you inevitably
slow down and begin to observe and appreciate more what’s
going on around you. In our fast, modern world, it’s a luxury to
be able to watch the stars move across the sky.” And probably
that is how his philosophy gets sealed inside his pictures.
Michael Kenna was born in 1953 in a small industrial town
called Widnes in Lancashire, England. He studied at the Banbury
School of Art. A talented student in painting, Kenna nevertheless
preferred photography over visual arts as it gave
him a more stable income. At the London College of Printing
he studied advertising, photojournalism, fashion and reportage
photography, printing and even engraving techniques.
Among the photographers who influenced Kenna immensely
and inspired him for fine art photography at that period he
mentions Brandt, Sudek, Stieglitz and Sheeler.
Kenna graduated from the London College of Printing in
1976 and started to work in advertising in London, through
photographing the landscape for his own pleasure. In 1977
he moved to the USA and through the Stephen White Gallery
got acquainted with Ruth Bernhard, a fine photographer and
another great inspiration for Kenna. She taught him the printing
which opened him up new interpretations and freedoms.
Nowadays he is a guru of modern photography, with his works
displayed in about seventy museums all over the world, including
the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Victoria and Albert
Museum in London, and the Museum of Decorative Arts
in Prague. More than 30 books dedicated to his art and scheduled
exhibitions from Los Angeles to Moscow.
The Moscow exhibition is his biggest retrospective ever presented
in one museum. More than 300 prints from different
Editor’s Choice
series over the years: France, Japan, USA, Monique’s Kindergarten,
Venice are on display. Before the Moscow show Kenna had
plans to go Siberia—a place he had long ago dreamt of photographing.
So who knows, maybe it is the beginning of a new
refined, out-of-time Kenna project. P
April 2011
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