Michael Kenna
Photographer

  • France
  • en
  • en
  • 26'
Michael Kenna | Photographer
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Synopsis

Michael Kenna was not destined to become a photographer. Born into a working-class family as the youngest of six children, he originally felt called to the priesthood. After seven years in the seminary, he chose a different path, enrolling in art school, where he first encountered photography. In this film, Kenna reflects on the evolution of his career, from his work as an advertising photographer for the automotive industry to the affirmation of his artistic voice. From the factories of Detroit to the gardens of Versailles, and the winter landscapes of Hokkaido, where he returns each year on a personal pilgrimage, his images are marked by a distinctive graphic poetry: an atmospheric black and white, mesmerizing contrasts of light and form, at times verging on abstraction. A singular visual language, driven by an insatiable curiosity. The curiosity, as he puts it, of an “eternal adolescent.

What you will find in this film

From a religious to a creative calling • The balance between commercial and artistic practice • Being in the right place at the right time • The gaze of an eternal adolescent • The poetry of black and white • Night photography and long exposures • Geometric and organic duality • Atmospheric minimalism • A winter pilgrimage to Hokkaido • The enchantment of the world

Keywords

Nature & Landscape The Artist at Work
Photography seemed to me the ideal mix of competent professionalism so I could make a living and also, in a strange way, a good mode of self expression. 
The advertising world really kept me afloat in the art world. It’s very difficult as a young photographer to exist in the art world selling prints and so forth. 
I like the feeling of allowing space in a photograph, for viewers, to come and be the actors. 
Something I love in photography is the alignment of things and how they move. 
I think to be a creative photographer, you almost have to be an eternal teenager. When you’re a teenager you just do things without thinking of the consequences and you are more adventurous because you don’t know what’s going to happen. You’re ready to do anything because you’ve never done it before. I think that, to be a photographer, you almost have to keep that spirit of just wanting to things for the sake of doing it and see how it is. 

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The authors/artists

Michael Kenna
Michael Kenna
Photographer
David Freydt
David Freydt
Film director

Further exploration

Bibliography

Resources

Instagram

• Michael Kenna – France, Nazraeli Press, 2014. (English; intro in French & English) – A major survey of his French work, including sites and motifs that echo the film’s itinerary. 

• Michael Kenna, Yvonne Meyer-Lohr – Forms of Japan, Prestel, 2015. (English) – A wide, structured portrait of Japan over decades (including Hokkaido), clarifying Kenna’s visual grammar of light and form. 

• Michael Kenna, Yvonne Meyer-Lohr – Beyond Architecture, Prestel, 2019. (English) – On Kenna’s way of turning built structures into quiet, almost abstract compositions—between documentary and meditation. 

• Michael Kenna, James Steward – Rouge, Prestel, 2016. (English) – A focused industrial body of work (Ford River Rouge) that mirrors his shift from applied photography to a fully authored, poetic language. 

• Michael Kenna – Hokkaido, Nazraeli Press, 2006. (English / Japanese) – The definitive book on the winter pilgrimage that threads through the film: long exposures, night, and the “space” left for the viewer.

‘I try to photograph the unseen’: Michael Kenna on 50 years of shooting breathtaking landscapes – The Guardian – interview. A wide-ranging conversation (religious background, industry, Japan, and what he looks for beyond the visible).

Michael Kenna interview: “Curiosity is important” – Light & Land – interview. On walking, long exposures, chance, and capturing the “spirit” of a place.

Interview: Michael Kenna – Center for Photographic Art – interview. A deep dive into process: night work, unpredictability, printing, and finding the right rhythm to “think visually.”

Structure and Scale – BnF (online exhibition, EN) – critical essay. A rigorous text on point of view, scale, and why Kenna’s images subtly unsettle our perception.

An Interview with Contemporary Master Michael Kenna – Artsy (photo-eye Gallery) – interview. On his background, influences, and how a career forms without a single “decisive moment.”