Michael Kenna: Finding the Light in Darkness

    

Michael Kenna

Michael Kenna, Eleven Hours, Eastlands, New Zealand, 2014

        Kenna has a unique way of turning ordinary life into something spectacular. Through his black and white landscapes, Kenna shows the viewer just how amazing the world truly is. In Eleven Hours, Kenna is doing a time-lapse at night to show a beautiful spiral of stars in the night sky. Like most of his black and white landscapes, there is a feeling of tranquility and peace that radiates from the photos. Instead of showing the world in full color, Kenna appears to want to transform the world beyond what the ordinary eye sees. At first glance, one may wonder if this photo was even taken on Earth. 

    Unlike other photographers we've seen in class, Kenna's goal is to bring an array of emotions to the viewer, rather than sending a particular message. The photographs transport the viewer to this black and white landscape where time has no boundaries, it's Earth, but it's an Earth people rarely see (huxleyparlor).

Michael Kenna, Quixote's Giants, Study 10, Consuegra, Spain. 1996

         In Quixote's Giants, it feels as if these windmills are from past memory or a parallel universe. The lack of color choice Kenna has with his photographs, along with the cloudiness/fog that appears in a majority of his landscape photographs brings a sense of nostalgia for something we never experienced. It's hard to describe in words the feeling his photographs create, it's like looking at a place from a distant dream, then realizing that this place actually exists. 

        I enjoy Michael Kenna's style of photography not only because of the feeling the foggy, black and white landscapes evoke, but the thoughts of why he chose to photograph this particular place. After researching that he is an avid world traveler, with the number of places he's visited, the locations in which he chooses his photographs must have some meaning to him. Whether the view is worth it, or if he believes he can show his viewers a different perspective to the reality they think they know.

Sources:

https://huxleyparlour.com/artists/michael-kenna/

https://www.smh.com.au/national/photographer-michael-kennas-wondrous-landscapes-20170206-gu69hp.html