Michael Kenna

Nine Birds, Taisha Shrine, Honshu, Japan. 2001

Onishi Tree Shadow, Study 1, Hokkaido, Japan. 2023

Born 1953 in Widnes, Lancashire, England

Currently lives in Seattle, Washington, USA

1973-76, London College of Printing, London, England.

1972-73, Banbury School of Art, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England

1964-72, St Joseph's College, Upholland, Lancashire, England

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Michael Kenna’s mysterious photographs, often made at dawn or in the dark hours of night, concentrate primarily on the interaction between the natural landscape and human-made structures. Kenna is both a diurnal and nocturnal photographer, fascinated by light when it is most pliant. With long time-exposures, which might last throughout the night, his photographs often record details that the human eye is not able to perceive.

Kenna is particularly well-known for the intimate scale of his photography and his meticulous personal printing style. He works in the traditional, non-digital, silver photographic medium. His exquisitely hand crafted black and white prints, which he makes in his own darkroom, reflect a sense of refinement, respect for history, and thorough originality.

During Kenna’s fifty year career, his photographic prints have been shown in almost five hundred one-person exhibitions and over four hundred group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the world. They are also included in well over a hundred permanent institutional collections. Ninety monographs and exhibition catalogs have so far been published on Kenna’s work.