The S K Josefsberg Studio is pleased to present the work of
Michael Kenna, on view at the gallery September 5 - October 12, 2002.

Michael Kenna's nocturnal photographs have a nether worldly quality. As a student he found himself venturing out earlier in the morning and/or later at night to photograph. The stillness and the solitude is what attracted him most about photographing during the sleepiest hours. Early on he retraced the steps of his idol, Bill Brandt, shooting the cobblestone streets of Lancashire, images that harbor the ebb and flow of industrial England.

The breadth of Kenna's work stems from his extensive travels. In fact, if he did not travel, he's not sure he would continue to photograph. Aside from visits back to England, Kenna has trekked throughout Europe, Russia, the United States, and, as of late, Easter Island and Japan. The images that come out of these vastly different regions are invariably meditations, that have two distinct themes. Whether bridges, shipyards or nuclear reactors, there is an awe of mechanization—factory plumes curling in the dense night air; the solemnity of stationary bridges spanning shore to shore; steam crowns of hourglass reactors. His second theme is more contemplative, etching a quality of expansiveness and order via the landscape. Oceans, parks and country vistas take on an ethereal, if not mystical, nature. It is in these isolated landscapes and seascapes that quietude prevails, leaving the mind to wonder or ruminate.

Michael Kenna was born and raised in England. He studied photography at the Banbury School of Art in Oxfordshire and the London College of Printing in London. At the end of the 1970s, Kenna relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1978 he had the great fortune of meeting Ruth Bernhard and eventually became her assistant and photographic printmaker. He would work closely with Bernhard for eight years. Since that time Kenna has forged out on his own and is widely represented and shown throughout the world.

Reception and Book Signing with the Artist
Wednesday October 2, 2002 :: 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

First Thursday Receptions
September 5 & October 3, 2002 - 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Michael Kenna Talk
     Presented by The Photography Council

Whitsell Auditorium, Portland Art Museum
Thursday October 3, 2002 at 6 p.m
Admittance for Photography Council Members is Free
Admission for non-Members is $5