Customer Reviews

Night Walk (Untitled 47)

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"NightWalk" represents a collection of Kenna's earlier -- and best known -- work. These are Black and White, toned photographs that offer a unique vision and perspective of the natural landscape and some industrial sites. The subjects are always about form and light. Most taken at night or the early dawn or dusk reflect the solitude of that hour. This book -- if you can obtain a copy -- is a must for lovers of fine Black and White photography.

1988, from the Friends of Photography, San Francisco. Small trade paperback on glossy stock, 59 pp. One of McKenna's first books.

This book was my first exposure to the work of Michael Kenna.

Here we have a number of arresting images in which the photographer takes elements from an urban or rural landscape and transforms them into formal compositions that are spooky yet noble. The play of light and dark, of contrasting textures, and of strong diagonals become the true subjects of the work.

This isn't showboat photography, but the work of an artist whose eye and level of craft manages to transfigure the common world.

(And just when I thought there couldn't be an image that caused me to look at the Eiffel Tower in a new way -- bam -- there it is in Plate 15.)