Michael Kenna
Brought up in the north west of England (Cheshire), Michael Kenna’s work mainly focuses on landscapes. From a young age he began to take photos at strange times of day, either at dawn or during the night which meant he was to use a long exposure, sometimes reaching up to ten hours. He describes shooting at night somewhat meditating due to the hectic schedule of photographing during the day.
After looking at the majority of his work, I find it very hard to chose a select view as my favourites, his work has grown on me whilst researching him in just one night! What I do love about his work is that it creates a mystical atmosphere and has the mind working very hard to imagine. The images of the concentration camps which I have included have a very strong aura and seriousness about them. In both of them I see feelings of no hope and no other way of life, the cut train lines shows no hope of getting out or another way of life, as does the guard tower. I feel these are very strong photos and easily portray the surroundings. In the image of the train station I see a strong relationship between the benches and the times, as these relate to waiting around. I feel this image has a great contrast between the two subjects, the benches and the clock and like the feel for the shadows. Light trails in the city/river landscape show the eventful evening in this city of the boats and cars coming and going, as Michael Kenna’s work does the opposite, as previously stated, his work sometimes used exposures of up to ten hours. All of his work can be found on his website which I have provided as I found it very hard to chose a select few as favourites.
Paul Kenny - Fine Art Photographer
Brought up in Salford, on a council estate, typical landscapes were not easy to come across at this time. Paul describes his love of the landscape blossoming once he had moved to the north east (Berwick upon Tweed), just south of the England/Scotland border. Once here he continuously frequented up and down the coastline developing his work. Using large format, an MPP 5x4 camera, he looks for characteristics in certain landscapes which can resemble a symbolism (the stone which appears to have a map on), leaving the viewer with a split mind what the image is actually of. Certain images, have a slight metallic feel to them, this is because water has been taken from the coast and thrown over the stones whilst using a long exposure. For years, he would travel back to the same area, and would continuously focus his work on a specific stone in a wall, describing this as his favourite stone to work with. He also adds that returning to previous sites of work plays a great importance to his work.
As well as using large format photography, he now works without the use of a camera, some would say this is now considered as art. He replaces the camera with a flat bed scanner, and places objects, from the landscapes he visits and creates his work. Not only does he place the objects on the scanner, but he also collects sea water from these areas, dries out to create salt crystals and uses these, along with dripping sea water onto the scanner itself. Breaking numerous scanners along the way he would like to add. We can see in some of the images that he cuts out shapes from certain leaves, with a card making devise and places them together on the scanner. Over a number of months he also collects pieces of metal, places bottle tops on the surface and gradually adds sea water to create rust, then once happy with the outcome would place on the scanner and create his image. The first image is once in which, water was taken from the stream, dried out into salt crystals, and then these were places on a layer of ice on the river, upon returning to the river the day after, this was the outcome of that process.
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