Michael Kenna – The Long Exposure

That Landscape Guy…

Michael Kenna is that landscape guy. Or black and white film guy. Or that long exposure guy. Uhhh,…or that Hasselblad guy. Hell,…I don’t know who Michael Kenna is,…other than the “lengths” of his exposures require that $1000+ tripod and head assembly. And the beauty of his images just suck me in. And I’m not a landscape guy. (think I’ve seen one too many oversaturated sunsets,…digital and otherwise) Other than some of the large format guys, (Ansel Adams, Michael Massaia, Clyde Butcher, etc.), I’m not really a fan of landscape photography. But, what can I say. Michael Kenna transcends all that preconceived stuff. But you never know why. It’s like falling in love with that person who you know is wrong for you. 😭💔

Be Unique with Normal Stuff

So, what’s wrong? Well, only the image matters. So, probably nothing. Except he still shoots film. Black and white film. On medium format. With a relatively ancient, (to some), square format Hasselblad 500 series,….with a regular old lens. Nothing special. In fact, I think his tripod is more exotic than his camera, lens, or film. While he’s not the first to use a medium format camera for landscape,….I don’t know any others using 10 hour exposures, and retreating to the darkroom to further extract every iota of beauty with his well learned printing expertise.

The Journey

Michael Kenna was born in 1953. He is an English photographer best known for his unusual black & white landscapes working in super long exposures and mostly photographing at dawn, or maybe night, with exposures of up to 10 hours. His background is ‘working class’ Irish, and as every Irish Mum will tell you,….he was suppose to be a priest. (I should probably include my Italian Mama in that) Luckily, Michael Kenna went his own way. However,…I don’t know why people would assume,….”he bought a Hasselblad and sat in a forest taking long exposures”. That’s not how artists develop. NONE! A lot of work goes into getting to where you’re going.

From School to Work

After about a year of art school , and getting exposed to photography, Kenna applied to the London College of Printing with the “practical” idea of becoming a commercial photographer. At this point, landscape photography was a “hobby”. And he was a pretty good commercial photographer. He did work for the press, assisted other photographers, and sold stock photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cornell Capa, Marc Riboud and Jacques-Henri Lartigue for the John Hillelson Agency on Fleet Street. It wasn’t until 1977 that Kenna moved to America for the opportunity to show and sell his landscape work in galleries. It was in San Francisco that he met Ruth Bernhard, and he became her printer. Ruth Bernhard had some unique methods of manipulating and interpreting a negative. So, for the next 8 years his skill set probably grew 10 fold.

Hassy Love

There is nothing particularly special about “Hassy Love”. But for Michael Kenna, it was sometime in the mid eighties that he started mostly using a classic Hasselblad medium format. And later Holga cameras. (which is why I said he seems to place more importance in a tripod) However, he has employed a 4×5 large format cameras on ocassion. His work has been shown in galleries and museum exhibitions throughout the world. And, yes, he is STILL a master printer, and values the pure artistry of the darkroom. I belong to the school of thought that an image is not an image until it’s a print.

Museums and Exhibitions

Michael Kenna has photographs in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and exhibitions in probably every major city in the world. He has also done commercial work for such clients as Volvo, Rolls-Royce, Audi, Sprint, Dom Perignon and others. Check out his site for absolutely inspiring images,…and the beauty of the analog print. Hasselblad 500 series and Holga

Michael Kenna Website

Of special interest should be Kenna’s work with a Holga;

Michael Kenna:Holga