Photographs & Stories by Michael Kenna | My Photo Bookshelf
I’ve long admired Michael Kenna’s pictures, but only recently since taking black and white photography more seriously in my own work did I start to study Michael’s photography more closely. I studied his work online and watched lots of video interviews, but I really wanted to see his work in print, so luck would have it that while I was looking into the books Kenna had published, he announced Photographs and Stories. This book caught my attention as it was a great opportunity to look back at his work spanning 50 years and I wasted no time popping it into my basket.
Author’s synopsis
In celebration of Michael Kenna’s fiftieth year as a photographer, we are thrilled to announce the publication of Michael Kenna: Photographs and Stories.
Kenna has selected one image for each year beginning 1973, when he enrolled in the Banbury School of Art, and for each subsequent year. Following the “Photographs” section is “Stories,” in which Kenna gives context to each image and considers how it connected to his own life at the time.
Michael Kenna is arguably the most influential landscape photographer of his generation. Often working at dawn or during the night, he has concentrated primarily on the interaction between the ephemeral atmospheric conditions of the natural landscape, and human-made structures and sculptural mass.
Over ninety books and catalogs have been published on his work. His exquisite, hand crafted, silver gelatin prints have been exhibited throughout the world and are included in such permanent museum collections as The National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; The Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai; and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In 2022, Mr. Kenna was made an Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.
My thoughts about the book
First off, I love how this book has been presented. It oozes class. The cloth cover, the stunning cover picture, the foil lettering and best thing of all, the Japanese Kasadaka paper inside. It’s a thick, warm matt paper that fits with Michael’s monotone work perfectly. It looks amazing and feels even better to touch.
The book opens with a foreword by Ann Jastrab, Executive Director, Centre for Photographic Art in CA and then flows straight into Michael’s pictures. As you can imagine the photos included are incredible and with them sequenced in chronological order, one thing that stands out to me is how Michael’s style has remained so consistent over the years. To stay true to one’s artistic vision, shrugging off contemporary trends and the lure of modern camera equipment must take significant amounts of self-belief. There was, however, one conspicuous shift in style and that came in 1989 when Kenna transitioned to the square format. From this point in the book, all of the photos were in a 1:1 aspect ratio.
While studying photobooks over time, I’ve started to learn what I think works and what doesn’t (for me) and one of those things I do like with regards to design is to keep the photo pages clean and uncluttered with minimal text and this book is a perfect example of that. Under each image is just a few words detailing where and when the picture was taken, but the stories behind each photo are printed toward the end of this fine book. This approach is fast becoming one I prefer the most when there is a story to be told about the image and is a great compromise between letting the pictures breathe on the page whilst still ensuring their stories can be told.
This book is special. While reading it I enjoyed a delightfully visual and tactile experience and because of that, it gets elevated right up there as one of my favourites.
Book Details
Hardcover
Size: 11.5 x 13 inches
Pages: 106
Photos: 51 duotone plates printed on Japanese Kasadaka paper
Availability at the time of writing: Back in print. Available from https://www.setantabooks.com