Black and White landscapes
Michael Kenna was born in the North of England in 1953.
From an Irish Catholic family with five siblings he ditched his original intention of becoming a priest and graduated as a commercial photographer from the London College of Printing in 1976. He honed his craft commercially and sold prints of Cartier-Bresson, Lartigue and Riboud through John Hillelson Agency in London.
Moving to San Francisco because of an upsurge in photogrpahic galleries he met Ruth Bernhard who hired him as her printer. Over the next eight years he learned and practiced how to creatively manipulate and translate a negative.
Since 1986 he has mainly used a Hasselblad or Holger camera and his square format pictures are accounted for by this. Shooting in early light or at night he can make 10 hour exposures which give his pictures a unique and ethereal look.
He has shot around the world but says that his favourite country is France due to the variety of landscapes. Nonetheless he was strongly influenced by visits to the Far East and especially Japan where he describes learning how to par pictures down "like a haiku".
He has photographs in galleries around the world and has more than twenty books in print.
You can see an interview about his work and influences here :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z66z6u3LZBc
This second link is to a series of "minimal photography" tips learned from Michael Kenna's work :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuK0yrRulkU
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