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Postcards, Photographs
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia

Haïkus, Michael Kenna

2025-09-29T05:00:00Z

Born in 1953 in Widnes, an industrial town in northwest England, Michael Kenna grew up in a working-class Catholic family. After seven years at a minor seminary, hoping to become a priest, the young man discovered a passion for art. He chose to study photography at the Banbury School of Art and then at the London College of Printing, from which he graduated in 1976. He moved to the United States the following year and in San Francisco met photographer Ruth Bernhard, whose printer he would be (…)

- Silver Haikus 2025

Haikus, The return to the motif

2025-09-24T05:00:00Z

During his travels in Asia, Michael Kenna developed a fondness for certain places and patterns, to the point of rephotographing them periodically. The series thus created have become essential milestones in his work.
Composed of female nudes taken in Japan since 2008, the series Rafu is situated on the fringes of the artist's usual work. Like his landscapes, however, it harnesses the interpretive power of photography to question the relationship between the body and space. The organic (…)

- Silver Haikus 2025

Haikus, The Image Factory

2025-09-17T05:00:00Z

Although Michael Kenna now uses digital technology, preparing his compositions with a smartphone and sharing his work online, his photographs are all produced using traditional film techniques, which rely on the light sensitivity of silver halides. In silver halide photography, the shot produces a negative on film, which is then used as a matrix for printing on paper. The final work is only the visible part of a multitude of images produced at different stages (instant prints and digital (…)

- Silver Haikus 2025 / 2025, Michael Kenna, Photography

Haikus, Calligraphing the real, Abstractions

2025-09-10T05:00:00Z

Calligraphing the Real
Some photographs by Michael Kenna exist at the boundary between figuration and abstraction. In these compositions, plants or structures (poles, barriers, and others) are arranged against a uniformly white background like musical notes or enigmatic characters. This ambiguity between the sign and meaning is found in Japanese cursive calligraphy, where the monumentality of the stroke can transform a character into a landscape.
It is in the snow-covered valleys of (…)

- Silver Haikus 2025 / 2025, Michael Kenna, Photography

Haikus, Capturing the Invisible

2025-09-03T05:00:00Z

Michael Kenna's choice to always interpret his subject rather than document it has led him to test the limits of photography by attempting to capture what he calls ‘the invisible'. In his work, this elusive material ranges from emotion (aroused by the interaction between two elements) to pure form (isolated by a compression of space). Halfway between figuration and abstraction, Michael Kenna also practises a form of photo-calligraphy in which the rhythm introduced by dark elements is (…)

- Silver Haikus 2025 / 2025, musee

Haikus, Devotion and Occupation

2025-08-27T14:41:00Z

Devotion The photographs taken by Michael Kenna in the temples and shrines of Asia showcase the devotion of women and men, which is evident both in the architecture and in the marks of piety. This subject is particularly dear to the photographer, who has also described shooting and printing as meditative activities, his photographs as prayers, and his formal vocabulary as the result of a spiritual understanding of existence.
Occupation If he often works in peaceful and quiet places, (…)

- Silver Haikus 2025

Haikus, Living in the world

2025-08-20T05:00:00Z

Living in the World One would be hard-pressed to identify people in the photographs of Michael Kenna. Yet, humanity occupies a central place in his work through the traces of its activities left in the landscape. The photographer thus represents different ways of living in the world, ranging from a discreet presence in harmony with nature to a total occupation of space, including spiritual practice. Human activities hold an important place in the iconography of Asian arts. In Japan, while (…)

- Silver Haikus 2025 / 2025, Michael Kenna, musee

Haikus, Eternal Peaks and Venerable Trees

2025-08-13T05:00:00Z

Eternal Peaks Provided one braves the rugged terrain and unpredictable weather, the mountains are a very fertile subject for photographers. The compositions of Michael Kenna eloquently testify to this, particularly those made since 2007 in the Huang Mountains (Huangshan) in eastern China. The fantastic silhouettes of granite peaks rising from an ocean of clouds echo the tradition of celebrating “mountains and waters” (shanshui) practiced by poets and later by Chinese Literati painters (…)

- Silver Haikus 2025 / Agriculture, 2025, Michael Kenna, musee

Haikus, Original Nature

2025-08-06T04:30:00Z

Some landscapes by Michael Kenna convey a deep reverence for the Earth's fundamental elements: aquatic, mineral, and vegetal. This primal nature, untouched by any human presence, dominates the framework of photography. Oceans, mountains, and trees are not merely elements of a landscape but rather the protagonists of a natural scene. These subjects also enjoy considerable fortune in the history of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese arts, where landscapes are most often inhabited by humans, beasts, (…)

- Silver Haikus 2025 / 2025, Michael Kenna, Photography

Haikus, Exhibition at the Guimet Museum June 11 - September 29, 2025

2025-07-30T05:00:00Z

Celebrating the exceptional donation made by Michael Kenna to France in 2022 of his entire body of work, this exhibition aims to highlight the connections between his work and Asian arts through a thematic approach and a dialogue with remarkable pieces from the collections of the Guimet Museum.
Musée national des arts asiatiques
Commissariat de l'exposition
Edouard de Saint-Ours, Curator of photographic collections, Guimet Museum, Paris
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- Silver Haikus 2025 / 2025, Michael Kenna, musee, Photography

INDOCHINA CARTACARO.COM Postcards, Photographs Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia

Haïkus, Michael Kenna

Haikus, The return to the motif

Haikus, The Image Factory

Haikus, Calligraphing the real, Abstractions

Haikus, Capturing the Invisible

Haikus, Devotion and Occupation

Haikus, Living in the world

Haikus, Eternal Peaks and Venerable Trees

Haikus, Original Nature

Haikus, Exhibition at the Guimet Museum June 11 - September 29, 2025

INDOCHINA CARTACARO.COM
Postcards, Photographs
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia