Michael Kenna: New andClassic Images is a special
exhibition of work from Japan showing
until - September 8, 2012 at Joseph
Bellow Gallery (7661 Girard Avenue ,
La Jolla, 92037) More info:858.456.5620 info@josephbellows.com
Written by Cathy Breslaw
Michael Kenna’s New
and Classic Images exhibition at
Joseph Bellows Gallery comprise a selection of
black and white ethereal and contemplative photographs. These fifty
images span twenty years and thirteen countries..Kenna has been photographing
for forty years and still relies on Kodak film in spite of the growing digital
marketplace. He makes his own sepia toned silver gelatin prints in a
traditional darkroom, creating precisely7 ¾” square images, which are dry
mounted on 16” x 20” museum board. He doesn’t deviate from his methods and
there seems to be no reason he should. His remarkably atmospheric and surreal
architectural and landscape scenes are uninhabited but hint at human
intervention.
Kenna has traveled the world
taking photographs and has spent countless nights outdoors using sometimes ten
to twelve hour exposure times to create his vision of the locations he is
capturing on film. Some images possess the stark contrast of darkness against
the drama of focused light like a Rembrandt painting while others portray a
dreaminess - a misting and blurring of objects against a distant cloudless
sky. One group of images in the show
closely resembles delicate line drawings or detailed paintings rather than
photographs. Many of Kenna’s images were photographed in Southeast
Asia and directly reference Chinese or Japanese brush painting.
Michael Kenna’s work
possesses a universal classic style with a unique personal vision – seemingly a
travelogue marking places he has been and places we would all like to visit.
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