The ghostly images of Michael Kenna give us a hauntingly beautiful lens with which to view our natural world. Many of his photos are inspired by his travels abroad, with Japan being one of his biggest influences. When Kenna first visited Japan in 1987 for a one-person exhibition, he became completely entranced with the countries stark terrain.
Since then, Kenna has traveled throughout the world snapping his striking, minimalist landscapes, which continue to capture the essence and grace of the eerie mountains, oceans and valleys he photographs.
Kenna’s work lies in the realm of simplicity and clarity. He has described his body of work as, “more like a haiku rather than a prose,” alluding to the idea that his photographs are captured in short poem form. The process with which Kenna creates his work explains why his photos give off the feelings they do: suspended. He often makes his photographs at dawn or in the dark hours of the morning with exposures up to 10 hours.
Kenna has said “you can’t always see what’s otherwise noticeable during the day … with long exposures you can photograph what the human eye in incapable of seeing”. What Kenna’s pictures allow us to see are breathtaking landscapes through a supernatural lens, which is no easy feat.
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