I would call myself a lucky man, since I have had a chance to visit two of Michael Kenna’s exhibitions during the last six months. The first exhibition took place in Amsterdam in November 2010 and my wife had actually organized the whole trip for me (including personal meeting with Michael) as an early X-Mas present:) I was very excited when I arrived to Amsterdam and a few hours latter I was heading to the gallery for the opening ceremony. To my big surprise the exhibition did not take place in a big fancy gallery as one would have expected, but in the very small one, the smallest I have ever seen:) In this case it was prime example when the saying “size does not matter” was proven more than true. The gallery had an amazing atmosphere and the photographs were absolutely awesome. I spent quite a some time observing all the pictures and at the end I got enough courage to go and meet face to face the photographer. I did say to him something like “ehm, my wife sent me over here” and it was like saying a special secret code. He was fully aware of the whole deal and we started to talk and talk about photography, personal life and much more. One hour later I felt I should let other people to have a chance to talk to him, so I asked him to sign some of his older books I have in my collection and I left with my mind in the sky.
I was very happy to find out that this year first European exhibition is taking place in Parisian gallery Camera Obscura from the end of March until May 7th. Since Paris is not far from Geneva I bought a ticket for TGV train and on Saturday April 9th I made it to Paris:) I did not have a chance to go to the opening ceremony this time, but to see the exhibition itself was also great. The aim of this exhibition is to present one of the recent Michael’s portfolios “Huangshan” and book with the same name. Again it was not the biggest gallery in terms of square meters, but very big one in case of overall atmosphere. Displayed photographs were stunning and I spent quite a some time observing all of them. For me it was really very special to see the traditional silver gelatin prints produced with the technical excellence but more importantly with such a high aesthetics and in the way that each of them has its own soul. Michael Kenna’s photographs made my day and made me personally very happy and motivated to pursue further with my hobby:)
I know that it is quite a late notice, but if you are in Paris or planing to go this week make sure to save some time and go to visit this amazing exhibition. In case you will not be able to make it there, have a look on Michael’s website for upcoming events. You will not regret it.