Exhibition - Michael Kenna: Japan, A Love Story
at Asia House, London W1G 7LP
Review by David Tonge
This is one of those reviews where I only need to say – ‘simply beautiful and inspiring, please go and see it with your own eyes!’
But since you will want to know more…Michael Kenna is a British born globe-trotting photographer who has been taking utterly stunning landscape photography for five decades. He has been exhibited in a 1000 gallery and museum exhibitions throughout the world.
Kenna has a fascination with both dusk and the dark of the night when the light is at its most pliant and interesting. He uses long exposures to capture incredible levels of detail as well as, in my opinion, the ethereal stuff not caught by the eye but felt by the body. He does his own developing in his dark room enabling him to control the process. This level of meticulous detail is unusual by today’s standards, and one that I and his Japanese followers admire, and is surely evident in the final prints.
This exhibition Japan, A Love Story, is perhaps appropriately quietly held in Asia House. Appropriately because what first strikes you about Kenna’s photography of Japan is the sense of peace and serenity he has carefully captured. The space is simply laid out with a minimal amount of information to absorb (always good in my view) and supplemented by a fantastic video in English with Japanese subtitles, showing Kenna on his travels in Japan, discussing how he works.
The shots themselves I would suggest are compositional. In the way a sumi-e ink painting or a Hokusai print is compositional. Objects in the foreground draw you deep into the scene at which point you notice the incredible depth of detail. A level of detail Hokusai himself would be happy with. But more than compositional skill, Kenna makes us think about the fundamental relationship between us the viewer, the object and space. It’s unusual for photography to make us the active viewer, but his work encourages us to engage.
Furthermore, as mentioned above, they are somehow ethereal. Many are shot in Northern Japan in the snow. Others are shot in Kyushu or Honshu capturing a different subject matter, but with the same eye for composition. All shot in B&W and printed on gelatin silver paper, they have a depth and ambience which perfectly suit the subject matter.
In a world where everyone has a camera and we are bombarded with images, Kenna’s shots not only capture the way he feels about Japan – which is, as the title suggests, deeply in love –, but make the viewer stop and take a breath and think about what photography can do.
For those of us who are lucky enough to spend time in Japan, Kenna’s photos are not so much about what is visible, but how we feel about it.
If I were pushed to suggest some favourites (should Michael have a Xmas list!) they would be – Sanuki Fuji, Kagawa, Shikoku shot in 2022, where I am convinced, I am looking at a Sumi-e print and Flock of Red Crown Cranes, Tsurui, Hokkaido shot in 2005 which is both compositionally beautiful and intensely intimate. But you will have your own.
For us mere mortals the exhibit is accompanied by a beautiful monograph (which I am currently staring at) of his prints and more information about Kenna’s love of Japan. Sponsored by Nikkei & the FT and represented by Peter Fetterman, the exhibition has been in Tokyo and Los Angeles and will go on to Hong Kong.
To finish where I started this exhibition is ‘simply beautiful and inspiring, please go and see it with your own eyes!’ .