Michael Kenna

Strolling Swan, Chateau d'Azay le Rideau, France

1980

Michael Kenna was born into a working class Irish-Catholic family in England. His upbringing originally inspired him to pursue priesthood and he attended a Catholic seminary school until 1972. After seminary school, his childhood love of art led him to study photography at the London College of Printing where he graduated in 1976. Working as a commercial photographer, Kenna moved to San Francisco in 1977. Kenna’s photographic work focuses on landscape. He is considered a master in the art of contemporary photography. His approach to everyday scenery is enigmatic, leaving the viewer seduced. The mysterious aura of his photographs is created by long exposures that allow time and movement to be a part of the landscape, something the human eye so easily ignores in a glance. The work of Kenna has been published, awarded, and collected for decades. He has published 47 books of his photography over his career of thirty years. His photography has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows internationally. The artwork of Kenna has been acquired by permanent collections as the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A; Fonds national d’art contemporain, Paris, France; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.