Michael Kenna
author · photographer
Michael Kenna is a British photographer known for his black-and-white landscape photography. Born in Widnes, England, he grew up in a working-class Irish-Catholic family and initially attended seminary school before pursuing an artistic career. He studied at the Banbury School of Art and later graduated from the London College of Printing (now University of the Arts London) in 1976. Kenna's work is characterized by its focus on ethereal light, often achieved through long exposures at dawn or night, capturing the interaction between atmospheric conditions and human-made structures or natural landscapes. He has been awarded several honors, including Chevalier and later Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in France. His archive was donated to France's Library of Heritage and Photography in 2022.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
- landscape photography
- ethereal light
- long exposures
- human-made structures
- sculptural mass
Books
-
Easter Island€289.00
Works by Michael Kenna
- 2001 Easter Island First edition limited to 1000 numbered copies.
- 2002 A Twenty Year Retrospective
- 1997 Monique's Kindergarten
- 2000 Night Work
- 2001 Impossible to Forget: The Nazi Camps Fifty Years After
- 2002 Japan
- 2003 Calais Lace
- 2003 Boarding School
- 2004 Ratcliffe Power Station
- 2004 Retrospective Two
- 2005 Hokkaido
- 2007 Montecito Garden
- 2007 Mont St Michel
- 2012 In France
- 2017 Abruzzo
- 2021 Northern England 1983–1986
- 2023 Photographs and Stories
Exhibitions
- 2016 A Wonderful World
- 2024 Paris Unseen
Awards
- 1981 Imogen Cunningham Award
- 1987 Art in Public Buildings Award
- 1989 Institute for Aesthetic Development Award
- 1996 Golden Saffron Award
- 2000 Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters
- 2003 Honorary Master of Arts
- 2013 Hae-sun Lee Photography Award
- 2016 Special Photographer Award
- 2022 Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters
References
- Michael Kenna (photographer). Wikipedia. 2026 link
- BnF Catalogue Général. catalogue.bnf.fr. 2019 link
- National Gallery of Art. nga.gov. 2019 link
- Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. digitalmuseum.rekibun.or.jp. 2019 link
- Victoria and Albert Museum. collections.vam.ac.uk. 2019 link
- Tim Baskerville. TheNocturnes.com. 2018 link
- Claire Sykes. Photographer's Forum. 2003
- Holocaust film. 2010
- www.culture.gouv.fr. 2022 link