Michael Kenna

The works by Michael Kenna – who was born in England in 1953 but has been living in the United States in the last thirty years –  displayed in the exhibit consist of 290 black and white photos. Of these, 200 constitute a genuine anthology of his work, from the images of England in the early seventies to those of the subsequent three decades, the product of journeys and commissions in every continent in the world; 35 document the Reggio Emilia area and are the outcome of three reconnaissance trips undertaken by Kenna over the period from 2006 to date; 35 record the perennial charm of Venice; and 20 recall some of Kenna's most important works on the Nazi concentration and extermination camps. The enchantment of Kenna's photographs lies in the alternating drama and marvel that the artist is able to contain in them: more than providing an accurate description of any particular place, he seems to be interested in capturing the lines that the space unveils before the eyes of the viewers, stirring their imagination and leading them into a reverie.

Michael Kenna was born in Widnes, Lancashire (England) in 1953. Although he had long been dreaming of becoming a painter, he studied photography at the London College of Printing. In 1975, the extraordinary potential of artistic photography was revealed to him by Bill Brandt's The Land exhibit held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Kenna's interest has been aroused by artists such as Atget, Emerson, Sudek, Bernhard, Callahan, Sheeler and Stieglitz as well as Brandt. At the end of the seventies he moved to the United States and settled in San Francisco – subsequently moving to Portland and then Seattle, where he is currently living. In San Francisco he met Ruth Bernhard (1905-2006), a sensitive photographer of nudes and still life. Over the course of time, the extensive experience he developed in darkroom techniques while working as her assistant and helping to print her images would be revealed throughout his work.
Almost from the outset of his career, Michael chose landscape as the elected theme of his photographs, which sparked off a tireless reconnaissance of the countless secret faces of the planet in every continent. The outcomes of these journeys and visits, partly commissioned and partly undertaken through personal choice, are documented in several specific monographs and in the catalogues of his exhibits. Of the many exhibits of his work held in public venues and private galleries, those displayed at various museums in France, the Unites States ad Japan are particularly noteworthy – the latest being the one held at the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale de France in 2009. Among his collections, we are pleased to recall his Impossible to Forget series on the Nazi extermination camps, also exhibited at Palazzo Magnani in 2002 as a special section of its Memoria dei campi exhibition.

Info
Palazzo Magnani 
Corso Garibaldi, 29 - Reggio Emilia
Ticket: 7 €. Concession: 4 € (Fotografia Europea single ticket). Students: 2 €. 
ph. 0522 454437 (Ticket Office); 0522 444406 and 0522 444408 (Direction and Offices) 
www.palazzomagnani.it,  info@palazzomagnani.it

Open times
Opening: Friday 7th May, 19.00
Open every day from 10.00 to 13.00 and from 15.30 to 19.00. Monday closed.
From 4th June to 18 July open Friday and Saturday also from 21.00 to 23.00