Reviews (1)

Outstanding retrospective
This book is a wonderful introduction and overview of the career of Micheal Kenna. Kenna's long-lived exposures and unusual eye for his subject material are unmistakably unique It is no wonder he is considered one of the world's most collectible photographers and apppeals to collectors just beginning to develop an interest in photography. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Gardens
Exceptional photographs of well-known places. An gardnerer's heaven, no mole-hills even.

Beautifully elusive garden images
While the text essays in this book are a bit dry, the photographic reproductions are of top notch quality. Kenna's photographs are beautifully elusive, sometimes printed quite dark, yet remain salient throughout. I found myself wondering how the images looked on the contact sheets, straight, with no darkroom manipulations. This book serves as a great example of what you can do in the darkroom to bring out a more poignant image than you actually shot at the location. It should be required for anyone who works with black and white photography in the darkroom; not because you will gleen any certain tips or techiques but because you will study the final results and perhaps wonder how they were achieved.

As a photographer, this book will remain in my photo book collection and it is Kenna's strongest work to date.

MAGNIFICENT MAGIC
I am very lucky indeed to have been able to see many of Michael Kenna's photographs at live exhibitions, both in Washington, D.C. and in New York City. Any art book is a "poor" substitution for the real thing, but there are some books that can give you true, beautiful examples of specific art works that then, hopefully, can someday be seen live. Kenna is a British photographer, in his 50's, who now lives in San Francisco....and seems to concentrate, in large part, on landscapes as his subjects. His images in this book are of the gardens created by Andre Le Notre, "the most important garden designer of the court of Louis XIV." In approximately 6o plates on 80 pages, we are taken to 10 different locations in France including the Tuileries in Paris and Versailles and Fontainebleau. The photographs are nothing short of breathtaking, obviously taken at dawn or dusk when the natural light is almost unreal. These images evoke mysterious, art movie settings---one almost expects a stranger to appear from one of the designed paths or pools or from behind one of the symmetrical trees or shrubs. All of it: the photographs, the accompanying essay, the way the book is put together with obvious care and love is magnificent magic.

excellent images
A beautiful book that is full of some of Michael Kenna's finest images. Truely beautiful black and white printing. Michael Kenna is a master in his own time. Some of the fimest landscape I have ever seen. A must have for photography lovers!! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Visionary Photographer
"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. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Astounding photos. B E A U T I F U L
the plates are stunning, the book is solid and the pages are a fantasy, all 60 of them.

Recommend for anyone at anytime for any reason. A very special gift!

Each new hour holds news chances
Monique's Kindergarten is a good solid book. There are some real gem photos in here but the viewer needs to wade through more so-so photos than gems. Our dear friend Heraclitus wrote that "people searching for gold find a lot of dirt." Kenna is streching out here and searching just the same. It's not his strongest work but, jeez he's out there taking pictures and risks. It's a real departure from his older work so God bless him for evolving. Still, it doesn't make my "Must Have" list. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Many excellent photographs
This is a beautiful book with great reproductions of Kenna's excellent black and white photographs taken in the 1980's in low light/night light, as the title says. Slow speeds to pick up the light at night also catch the clouds moving in the sky and convey an eerie feeling. Here you will find some of the photographs that make Kenna's phototography thrilling. Smokestacks in a powerstation in Nottingham with light that seems luminescent; pictures of the sea where water and clouds move; white poles and white steps glimmer in the dark; industrial landscapes are captured spendidly. Although these are landscapes there is a definite feeling of movement, and it is that movement that lures me to these photographs time and again.

Images Like Haiku Poetry
Summary: Night Work is filled with haunting scenes of "evocative and mysterious places" that will fill your dreams. Michael Kenna uses the varying degrees of normally occurring darkness, light and contrast that night brings to create shifting moods of abstract beauty. Anyone who has been out walking alone at 3 a.m. will immediately recognize the inherent stillness and loneliness of these moments. Stop and take a deep breath, and the same moment turns into ethereal beauty . . . as these images testify.

Review: Ghostly illusions are the essence of Mr. Kenna's work. Our reactions to abstract shapes and normal objects shift as the shadows lengthen, and greyness pervades the scene. In the absence of people, these scenes also evoke the loneliness and alienation of modern life. Mr. Kenna has a way of showing juxtapositions of nature and man-made objects in a way that puts mere humans in their place, temporarily above ground before the mortal coil is shed.

The best of this work is truly stunning, and there are many superb images here. But the majority of the work just missed for me. Either the degree of fuzziness of the objects was too great, or the images were too faint, or the light source overpowered the scene, or the composition needed cropping. It's too bad because the concept of this work is very strong, and the results are almost right in virtually all cases.

Bill Brandt is the strongest influence on this body of photography, which Mr. Kenna describes as an invitation to "slow down" and to experience like "haiku poetry." I thought that both references were apt.

My favorite works in the book included:

This Tree, Cracow, Poland, 1989;

Above the Abreuvoir, Marly, France, 1992;

Abre Agite, Mont Gros, Nice, France, 1997;

Swings, Catskill Mountains, New York, 1977;

Pont Neuf (merci Brassai), Paris, France, 1992;

Bill Brandt's Snicket, Halifax, Yorkshire, England, 1986;

Beach Path, Hastings, Sussex, England, 1984;

Wind-Swept Beach, Calais, France, 1989;

Docking Poles, Venice, Italy, 1980;

Draped Boats, Whitby, Yorkshire, England, 1986;

The Rouge, Study 95, Dearborn, Michigan, 1995;

Chapel Cross Power Station, Study 2, Dumfries, Scotland, 1985;

Lagoon, Study 1, Blackpool, Lancashire, England, 1992

Sea Stones, Monterrey, California, 1992;

Nocturne, St. Malo, Brittany, France, 1993; and

Log and Plane, Boca Raton, Florida, 1992.

As you can see from these examples, his geographical and subject tastes are broad and varied. His work with power supplies is unusually poetic, making the tall cooling towers look almost like Monet's grain stacks in some ghostly images.

After you examine these long-exposed images, I suggest that you think about which aspects of night are most moving for you. What emotions do you like to have evoked by night? Why? What locales work best for creating those feelings? How can you use night to inspire and inflame your creativity instead, as Mr. Kenna has done?

Sway to the heavenly music of the night!

... Read more

Reviews (2)

Small Prints
The book shows Kenna's camera views of the Moss Landing area. Pictures are superb, calm, quiet yet minimalistic.
I can only imagine how much work was achieved to catch the atmosphere of this place, which IMHO could be wet&flat&banal at a glance. It's the best of Kenna's book. No heavy constructions, no dramatic shades, simplicity and poetry. I can only recommend it. Cover photograph is familiar, but it's not the best one of the book.

industrious ghostly apparitions
a storm threatens off-shore. the wind is blowing in from the west pushing the surf towards you. the day has become dark, ominous, grey. towering above, smokestacks can be seen to cough...up... towards the sky. the possibility of smelling green is there...fleeting...now here, now there! is the tide rising with the storm? leaving?

michael kenna's book, "the elkhorn slough and moss landing," is one of industrial beauty coinciding with the towers of industrialism looming, not on the horizon but, next to you...over you...on top of you. besides 'kindergarten,' this is the best IN-PRINT book of kenna's. there is an innocence in the approach of kenna that startles. it's effect is one of awe, loss of breath, beauty not reducible to words. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

worth it for a few stunning pictures
The subject of Easter Island was a perfect choice for Kenna to showcase his work. The mysterious beauty of the island is highlighted by his careful use of light and form. As usual, there are a lot of decent compositions with a few really stunning works. A fallen statue with a puddle in its eye reflecting the sky is one of my favorite photographic images of all time. ... Read more

Book Description

Michael Kenna crafts an eloquent eulogy for the industrial age in 50 photographs of the Ford Motor Company's Rouge River plant near Detroit. His dramatic sense of light and shadow gives these photos hallucinatory beauty; smoke and fumes curling from smokestacks are as evocative as fog shrouding the bridges of Paris or Prague. Kenna brings a romantic, even pastoral sensibility to architectural history, particularly to landmarks that are on the verge of redemption or extinction. Introduction and captions by Ford historian Lee R. Kollins explain the auto manufacturing process with engrossing precision. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The Center of a Modern World
I am a collector of photo books, and a former art writer, and this is one of my all-time favorite books. I'm here at Amazon to buy it as a gift (again). At the time it was built, the Ford Rouge Plant was the single most technologically advanced place on the face of the planet--essentialy the Microsoft of its day, when the Industrial Age was hitting full stride. Raw iron ore would come in on endless RR tracks on one end, and cars would pop out the other. In between, the world's most advanced industrialists were employing revolutionary manufacturing techniques. As a former Detroiter I can tell you that the Rouge is no longer the gleaming, chugging hub it once was--all the better for Kenna's grand eye. I hate to sound cliche, but he does for industrial landscapes what Mr. Adams did for Yosemite. His mostly nighttime shots are spooky, majestic stuff. And I applaud the publisher for tracking down a Ford historian to write a truly compelling preface which adds context and depth to one's understanding of the images. One last thing--Kenna's grew up in an industrial quadrant of England, and one of his primary galleries is located in a Detroit suburb, which is how he found out about The Rouge. It's a cool collusion of coincidence and personal history.

Impressive black and white industrial photography
"The Rouge" by Micheal Kenna is a wonderful compilation of photographs taken by Mr. Kenna at the Rouge Steel Plant in Detroit, Michigan. Kenna has a remarkable eye for composition and an outstanding mastery of light. Most of Kenna's photography is based on the abstraction of everyday objects; composing a picture so that the viewer can make his or her own inferences about the subject. This also has the effect of making Kenna's photography seem more personal. Also, Kenna's photographs of the Rouge Steel Plant make the plant seem as though it were alive; as if it were a self-sustaining organism: Kenna's photographs emphasize the activity of the plant, but they never show humans. The only thing I could have asked more from the book is more photos ... Read more