Michael Kenna

Huangshan Mountains

    Michael Kenna is an amazing black and white photographer. I can say this without a doubt because he has gotten several awards to show it. The Imogen Cunningham award in 1981, the Institute of Aesthetic Development award in 1989, the Chevalier of the order of Arts and Letters in 2000, and the honorary Master of Arts in 2003, just to name a few. I would have liked to share all of his works but there are just too many to share so I picked my top five favorites to share. The top three pictures are all from the same mountain range and the bottom two are both from Japan. Breathtaking, hypnotizing, and stunning, these are all words I would use to describe Kenna’s works. My first words I used the first time seeing these pictures were, “oh my god these are beautiful”, and my jaw literal dropped. I was so stunned and hypnotized by the beauty in his works that I just stared at them. One of my favorite part of these pictures is the lighting. Kenna often photographs at dawn and dusk and he has been quoted saying, "You can't always see what's otherwise noticeable during the day... with long exposures, you can photograph what the human eye is incapable of seeing.". I think his words were eloquently said and he is a hundred percent right. Seeing these pictures are wonderful because just hiking through these mountains or walking through Japan you wouldn’t stop long enough to see this beauty. I think these pictures would have been amazing in color but there is just something so alluring and delicate about the black and white photos. It might be that, as some people have said, his pictures instill a soft and peaceful tone to a loud and chaotic world. Before Kenna learned of his passion for art he wanted to be a priest. Now while being a priest would have been honorable I am so happy he found his love for art and decided to do photography instead because if he didn’t we wouldn’t have these breathtaking pictures. I hope you can find as much peace and joy in these pictures as I did.

Sakura and Full Moon

Torii Gate


Stehmann, I. (n.d.). Michael Kenna - Biography. Retrieved from https://www.irastehmann.com/artists/37-michael-kenna/biography/ 

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