From time to time I browse the internet looking for photographers whose work I might be interested in. On this particular occasion I came across Michael Kenna. I’d come across his work before, but had never looked closely at it. This time I did and found that I liked it. It was about time for me to get one of his photobooks to add to my collection. I ended up getting two and I love them both, but for different reasons.
Michael Kenna (born 1953) 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. His photos concentrate on the interaction between ephemeral atmospheric condition of the natural landscape, and human-made structures and sculptural mass.
Many books have been published of his work, the subjects of which range from The Rouge, in Dearborn Michigan, to the snow-covered island of Hokkaido, Japan. Kenna’s work is also held in permanent collections at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
The first of the books I acquired was: “Le Nôtre‘s Gardens”. Most photobooks are quite expensive, but this one had a very reasonable price so my expectations were low. Imagine my surprise when the book arrived and I found it was close to my ideal photobook. The photos are wonderful and remind me of those of my photographic hero: Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget (who I know also inspired Kenna). There’s an interesting introductory essay. With 60 plates, it’s not too big, but not too small either. Thankfully it’s quite light too (I also have a copy of Sebastião Salgado’s Genesis, which has wonderful photographs but it’s so large and heavy that I find it difficult to even pick it up).
It also came with an inscription. I have my doubt’s about it’s authenticity though.
If the first book was inspired by Atget, this one was definitely influenced by the photography of Bill Brandt, an English photographer of German birth. I particularly liked this book because Kenna and myself are almost exact contemporaries. We grew up only about 30 miles apart in the North of England. The book depicts Northern England between 1983 and 1986. I’ve been to some of the places shown and even those I haven’t visited seem quite familiar. The Introduction is written by Kenna’s nephew, Dr. Ian B. Glover, himself also a photographer, writer and educator. His introduction ends with the following words:
These images show a Northern England that doesn’t exist any more, and they remind me of the proverb, time and tide wait for no man. Time has certainly not waited for Northern England. Please enjoy this collection and remember that no matter where my Uncle Michael happens to be living or working, he is and will always be, a Northern English lad.
I left the UK in 1974 and have not lived there since, but I suppose the same could be said of me.
