Michael Kenna: Master of Timeless Black-and-White Landscapes

Born on November 20, 1953, in Widnes, Lancashire, England. From the age of 10 to 17, he attended a seminary intending to become a priest, but upon discovering his artistic talent, he chose a creative career instead. Michael Kenna’s mysterious photographs, often taken at dawn or at night, mainly explore the interaction between natural landscapes and man-made structures. Kenna is a day and night photographer, fascinated by light when it is most malleable. With long exposures that can last all night, his images often reveal details invisible to the human eye.

Photo from Thailand.

He studied at the London College of Printing in the Department of Graphic Design and Commercial Photography, graduating in 1976. Kenna is especially known for the intimate scale of his photographs and his meticulous, distinctive printing style. He works with traditional, non-digital silver photographic materials. His handmade black-and-white prints, created in his own darkroom, reflect a sense of refinement, respect for history, and absolute originality.

In 1977, he moved to San Francisco to exhibit and sell his works in galleries.

The master’s works are part of the permanent collections of the National Library of France in Paris, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. Over his fifty-year career, Kenna’s photographs have been featured in nearly 500 solo exhibitions and more than 400 group exhibitions in galleries and museums worldwide. They are also included in over a hundred permanent institutional collections. To date, ninety monographs and exhibition catalogs dedicated to Kenna’s work have been published.