Michael Kenna

 


Michael Kenna is an artist mostly known for his black and white film photos. Something I find quite amazing about Kennas work is the fact that a large portion of his photos are taken at night with a long exposure. When you first look at his images, that is not what you would expect given the fact that there is perfectly crisp detail and very defined contrast. This, in my opinion, is what truly makes Michael Kenna stand out as an inspirational photographer.
The first image is taken with a long exposure over night. It shows the stars movement as the earth rotates. Ive seen this type of photography many times with digital cameras and even then it creates such a beautiful work of art. The fact that Kenna created this photo with a film camera and mastered the perfect exposure time and aperture to have such a extraordinary outcome is amazing. 
The second photo is one of my favorites. I love this image mainly for the fact that the contrast of the white flower with the dark leaves is so pleasing to the eye. It almost looks as if the photo was edited in photoshop to create such a perfect range of black and white. This is what makes this photo stand out because achieving the appearance of an edited photo on film developed in the dark room truly shows his perfect understanding of exposure time.
The third image shows a beautiful piece of architecture in the middle of water. This image is created with a great amount of thought. There is an open space with just one simple center of interest in the direct middle. This allows the image to be very easy to look at and almost feels like a breath of fresh air. It is very obvious that he used a long exposure due to the fact that you can see the movement of the clouds.  Again, this photo shows such perfect contrast of color. (Posted on 2/16/22)

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