Sunday, November 2, 2014

I don't think I've ever included an acknowledgement of another photographer's work here.  But, hey...it's my blog, and I shouldn't feel restricted as to what I post, so here's something different.

 I have at least five books of Michael Kenna's work, two retrospectives, one anthology, and two monographs of singular subjects.  France is the most generous and sumptuous monograph I've collected by any photographer.  Knowing his work from these books, I've concluded that Kenna's so-called minimalist, long exposure images are just one segment of  his overall body of work.  The majority of the photographs are just superbly composed and interesting images of subjects that are a pleasure to look at.  (In fact, the long exposure minimalist images do not appeal to me with nearly the power as the rest.)

As I've written before, I am utterly disgusted by what passes for contemporary 'art' photography.  It's boring, careless, and poorly crafted in every sense.  It should be an embarrassment to those who champion it, but they're intent on proffering what hasn't been seen before even though it likely wasn't worth seeing in the first place. But, it's new! And...there are legions of visually illiterate viewers who will follow anyone that appears to be an authority no matter how flimsy their credentials and background. 

I am a classical musician, and have the utmost respect for excellent intonation, tonal purity, beautiful sound, and expressive interpretation.  Kenna meets parallel visual standards with supreme virtuosity.

 (digital, and with a tripod! lol)



3 comments:

DEH said...

I only have 2 Kenna books; but one I treasure is his "In Japan: conversations with the land". Its bound in vellum, see http://www.photobookstore.co.uk/photobook-in-japan.html
The beauty of his long exposure work is that time pares away the superfluous.

John Voss said...

Yes, D, it does. With the scores and scores of photographs I've examined in the books I have, not one image is a dud although some are stronger than others. That is a remarkable accomplishment! Btw, I've seen MK prints at the AIPAD shows in NYC, and the best of the books do justice to the actual prints.

John Voss said...

Yes, D, it does. With the scores and scores of photographs I've examined in the books I have, not one image is a dud although some are stronger than others. That is a remarkable accomplishment! Btw, I've seen MK prints at the AIPAD shows in NYC, and the best of the books do justice to the actual prints.