“VISUAL HOCKEY”. MICHAEL KENNA PHOTOS
The work of the English photographer Michael Kenna is famous for the whole world. His black and white landscapes are majestic, silent, quiet, mysterious and unique in their ability to influence the viewer’s imagination.
Michael loved painting since childhood. Photography carried away while studying at art school. According to Kenna himself, he uses photography as visual material that can set the viewer to communicate and tell his own story.
Michael Kenna, photographer, black and white landscapes, English photographers
Michael Kenna reaches for the original light effects using a Hasselblad medium-format camera and hand-typing technique. It takes off, mainly, in the early morning or late at night.
Photos of Michael Kenna are exhibited in art galleries around the world, they are included in the heritage of world-famous galleries such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. His footage of the destroyed concentration camps is well known.
In 2000, the Ministry of Culture of France Michael was awarded the Order of Arts and Literature. Michael Kenna is the winner of a huge number of photography awards.
“You can not repeat anything, because time is running away forever and does not return – at the same time every moment gives the photographer an unlimited number of opportunities”
Michael is often asked to tell about the features of his artistic method. In his answers to this question, he turns to intuition rather than reason: “It seems to me that style is the end result of personal life experience. I am drawn to certain places and topics that for some reason are close to me and I photograph them as it seems to me right. Who knows where it comes from. ”
He calls his works “visual hockey” and photo analysis. They really have something in common with Japanese poetry. They do not need to be explained. Hint, evoke memories or feelings – that is what they are aimed at. The photographer appeals to everything connected with deeply personal human feelings and experiences. For this reason, he likes to shoot parks and gardens. According to the photographer, he tries to look at everything with “sincere interest and an open heart.”
Michael Kenna prefers black and white photography. It seems to him “more mysterious and leaving room for interpretation, it is” pliable as clay, therefore it is more suitable material for an artist. ”
All the places in which Michael Kenna happens to cause, as he says, the response of the author’s fantasy, harmoniously merge with the mood of the surrounding world, again and again conquering the hearts of viewers.