St Michael
Michael Kenna is one of the most celebrated and respected black & white photographers working today, and a hugely influential one – his peaceful, minimalist approach has been widely emulated, but never bettered. He’s now well into his sixties, but shows no sign of slowing down, never mind retiring. Despite a punishing travel schedule linked to various book projects and exhibitions taking place all over the world, Michael found time to give AP a far-reaching and revealing interview.
A good lockdown
We began by asking Michael about his experience of the various lockdowns and restrictions, and how it has all affected him.
‘I suppose, as with many people, I found this lockdown period to be something of a double-edged sword. I wasn’t able to travel, which certainly put a dampener on things. Galleries and museums were forced to close, and so all my scheduled exhibitions were postponed or cancelled. Very fortunately, my family and I stayed safe, happy and healthy through it all, so I really have no complaints. I tried to make the most of the downtime by having much-needed knee-replacement surgery! It didn’t work so well the first time around and I had to have it redone. Sadly, I’m not very confident that it has improved much this second time around, either. Anyway, there were certainly times when my activities were curtailed somewhat. But, work-wise, I have 48 years of negatives in my archive, so there was always going to be something to do.’
Michael has published three new books in the past 18 months, which were probably the most(Prestel, Germany 2020), (Nazraeli Press, USA 2021), and (Prestel, Germany, 2021). Michael has also just finished the prints for a fourth ‘pandemic’ book, , which will be released by Editions Noir, France, next spring.
