Michael Kenna in Tbilisi

Photography Exhibit Brings Originality to Landscapes
The atmosphere is mystic and calm. Trees are rustling quietly, and the seas are soft. Total silence is the main spirit in Michael Kenna’s landscapes. They that are all black and white, and taken mostly after midnight.
Michael Kenna, a world-acclaimed British photographer, visited Tbilisi last week to open his first exhibit in Georgia. The name of the exhibit is “French Landscapes,” and all the photos are taken in France – Kenna’s favorite country to work.
Kenna, born in Ireland, finds his only interest in landscapes, and photographs them all around the world. He said that he was greatly impressed with France 30 years ago, and since that time he photographs it more frequently than any other place in the world. That said, he still travels much and has worked in many countries, such as Japan, India, Thailand, Vietnam, USA, and Canada.
“Last time, I was interested in Japan, particularly its North Part. I’ve worked there in winter and everything around is white, it’s very impressive. Looks like England and I love it,” says Kenna. He never visits a country once; his style of working is to return back in the same place and discover new things and new angles to shoot.
The project has been organized by the Tbilisi House of Photography, in partnership with The Georgian National Museum and the Alexander Dumas French Culture Centre.

“I’m very happy that the National Museum helped us to promote this event. Photography is one of the most popular fields in art, which gathers together the biggest public. During the last ten years it became more worldwide and sometimes this period is known as a photo explosion,” said Nestan Nizharadze, the Head of Tbilisi Photography House. Before the opening of the exhibit, she took Kenna and his French agent to the Kazbegi mountains, and the photographer said he was impressed by the landscapes and he would be glad to come back and work on Georgian mountain prints more carefully. The most important feature in his personality is that he mostly works in the dark, after midnight, and spends around eight hours setting the composition for one shooting.
“People always ask, how can I do it, to wait eight hours until the particular shadows or lights appear in the nature, but I think it is a luxury for me, in this time I look at the sky, at stars, I feel the atmosphere and I’m really very happy of it,” Kenna said.
He also said, “though sometimes I try to make some experiment and photograph models, my main interest is landscapes, and I’m never bored of it. Everything in the world has already been photographed, but the art is to find something new in everything already known, and I try to do it.” He tries it, and the result is in front of us. The prints are very close to the painting, every detail is accounted, and even the smallest shade has been shot only because the artist decided it was worthy to have. The viewer can feel that everything, all the nature, is under the author’s control. You feel that the only human being around is the photographer himself, the only person awake in the middle of the night, between the minutes of the dark and the sunrise.
Guram Tsibakhashvili, famous Georgian photographer and one of the initiators of the exhibition, said, “He is a very interesting photographer. That is the main reason we chose him for the exhibit. Not many photographers are left working in the classic style. His photos are like meditation, actually he meditates. He works about eight hours on shooting a single photo, and it means he is meditating. I hope that he’ll take photos in Georgia and his collections will be enriched with Georgian landscapes.”
The exhibit was held in Tbilisi Karvasla Museum and attended by lots of people. It was not easy to reach the photos and to look at them in the time you need to observe. That’s why interior designer Guga Kotetishvili said, “I liked the exhibit very much, and I want to come again, to view the photos more carefully. The Photographer is very professional, so I’m very glad to be here.”
One of the photos paid homage to Henry Cartie-Bresson, prominent Photographer of the early 20th century. Kenna feels him as his own teacher. “Of cause he is absolute master, I’m absolutely impressed, it’s impossible not to be. He is a phenomenal artist. I often look at different masters’ works and I take some ideas for myself. I’ve found many interesting things in his photos; I try to acknowledge them. That is why I wrote a homage to HCB. Cartie-Bresson is fantastic,” says Kenna.
Prints presented on the exhibit belonged to different periods of the artist’s works. Some of them were from eighties, and the newest pieces were taken in 2007.
“He is great, this man knows all the methods of how to take good landscape photos. He keeps attention on geometric objects, he is very careful observing and using air, lights and the maximum possible details of the landscape where he works. Yes, I love these landscapes, and I’m delighted,” said Aleksandre Bagration-Davidoff, a young photographer.
Kenna, who had been giving signatures and talking with Georgians, said he didn’t expect the warm emotions he has received from the Georgian people.
Over the next days of the exhibit, he will travel in the Black Sea coast and shoot experimental photos there, to see then and come back again.
The day before the exhibit in the Karvasla museum, he held a workshop in the Georgian National Museum hall. He showed about 150 prints to the auditorium and talked about his techniques and stories about some particular photos.
Michael Kenna is the author of about 30 books. Most of them are thematically arranged. He is the author of books about Japan, power stations, steel works, and all kinds of landscapes, beginning with the pastoral and rural landscapes.
“I have a whole book about my daughter’s kindergarten,” he said.
Kenna has been exhibited in almost every famous museum and gallery, and has about seven exhibits a month all around the world. The French Landscapes will be presented in the Karvasla Museum until December 20.
Anna Chichinadze
5.12.2008
http://www.museum.ge/web_page/dijest.php?id=82