Michael Kenna

• EXB 2019
• Hardback, 1st edition
• New

• Benrido 2023
• Set of 7 collotype prints
• New

• Benrido 2023
• Set of 7 collotype prints
• New

• Nazraeli Press 2024
• Hardback, 1st edition 136p
• New

Published to coincide with a major 2024 traveling exhibition in Tokyo, Los Angeles and London, this gorgeous new monograph presents 100 of Michael Kenna’s most iconic photographs of the Japanese landscape, many published here for the first time. A perfect pairing of artist and subject, these photographs of Japan comprise perhaps Kenna’s best known body of work and have been the subject of countless exhibitions throughout the world. Michael Kenna first visited Japan in 1987 on the event of his inaugural exhibition there, and he has returned dozens of times and made thousands of photographs throughout the country’s vast and incredibly varied landscape. Our earlier monographs Japan and Hokkaido have been out of print for many years, so we are thrilled to announce this important new publication that includes work spanning Kenna’s decades-long love affair with the country. Japan / A Love Story is beautifully printed in duotone on natural coated art paper and quarter bound in linen and silk. It opens with an essay in Japanese and English by the renowned critic and historian Kohtaro Iizawa. 

“Japan has a long and rich tradition of reciprocal gift giving. I have been the grateful recipient of so much over so many years in Japan, and I know that I will never be able to give back in equal measure. I hope this work can be seen as a small token of my desire to do so. I also hope this work can be viewed as a homage to Japan and that it will serve to symbolize my immense ongoing appreciation and deep gratitude for this beautiful and mysterious country.” — From the Afterword by Michael Kenna

"He has been reflective when others have been militant, romantic when others have been skeptical. Such isolation can starve all but the most independent of talents, but for these it can provide a sanctuary where visions can develop undisturbed. Kenna is one of these.” — Joanna Pitman, The Times

Shipping from May 24th, available for pre-order now.

• Nazraeli 2021
• Hardback, 1st edition
• New

“This book is an early vignette from Michael Kenna’s far-reaching photographic odyssey. Some of these photographs, made almost forty years ago, are familiar, even famous, but many have never been seen before. They have been lying in wait, stored in a series of negative files. Normally, Kenna travels extensively and is not able to keep up with printing his extensive collection of negatives. It took the Covid pandemic and lockdown for him to search through his archives, rediscover these long-forgotten images, and print them in his darkroom. These photographs reveal a Northern England from Kenna’s youth that, for the most part, no longer exists.” — From the Introduction

Michael Kenna was born in the small industrial town of Widnes in northwest England. The youngest of six children, Kenna grew up in a poor, working-class, Irish-Catholic family. He attended a seminary school for seven years with the intention of becoming a priest, after which he studied at the Banbury School of Art and later at the London College of Printing, before moving to the USA in the late seventies.

The adjoining counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire, where Kenna photographed in the early eighties, have much in common regarding their industrial development. Fiercely competitive, they share a border, a spine of mountains known locally as the Pennines, which helps to produce rain. The rise of a powerful cotton and wool industry, and the building of innumerable mills, canals, railways, chimneys and terraced worker houses, have been attributed in part to these high levels of precipitation. The local textile industry proliferated until the second half of the twentieth century, when there was a sudden, rapid decline and eventual decimation. It was during this precise time period that Kenna returned to the area to photograph, during the day and also at night.

Kenna’s early photographs of England launched his career and brought him international acclaim; yet it wasn’t until last year, 2020, that he revisited this particular body of work to find many unprinted images. These discoveries are exquisitely presented in this important new Nazraeli Press monograph, Northern England 1983–1986.

Beautifully printed on a natural textured art paper, accompanied by an introductory text by Dr. Ian B Glover, the seventy-five plates are reproduced in quadratone and bound into cotton cloth-covered boards reminiscent of the era.

• Nazraeli 2021
• Hardback, 1st edition
• Imperfect - see below

“This book is an early vignette from Michael Kenna’s far-reaching photographic odyssey. Some of these photographs, made almost forty years ago, are familiar, even famous, but many have never been seen before. They have been lying in wait, stored in a series of negative files. Normally, Kenna travels extensively and is not able to keep up with printing his extensive collection of negatives. It took the Covid pandemic and lockdown for him to search through his archives, rediscover these long-forgotten images, and print them in his darkroom. These photographs reveal a Northern England from Kenna’s youth that, for the most part, no longer exists.” — From the Introduction

Michael Kenna was born in the small industrial town of Widnes in northwest England. The youngest of six children, Kenna grew up in a poor, working-class, Irish-Catholic family. He attended a seminary school for seven years with the intention of becoming a priest, after which he studied at the Banbury School of Art and later at the London College of Printing, before moving to the USA in the late seventies.

The adjoining counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire, where Kenna photographed in the early eighties, have much in common regarding their industrial development. Fiercely competitive, they share a border, a spine of mountains known locally as the Pennines, which helps to produce rain. The rise of a powerful cotton and wool industry, and the building of innumerable mills, canals, railways, chimneys and terraced worker houses, have been attributed in part to these high levels of precipitation. The local textile industry proliferated until the second half of the twentieth century, when there was a sudden, rapid decline and eventual decimation. It was during this precise time period that Kenna returned to the area to photograph, during the day and also at night.

Kenna’s early photographs of England launched his career and brought him international acclaim; yet it wasn’t until last year, 2020, that he revisited this particular body of work to find many unprinted images. These discoveries are exquisitely presented in this important new Nazraeli Press monograph, Northern England 1983–1986.

Beautifully printed on a natural textured art paper, accompanied by an introductory text by Dr. Ian B Glover, the seventy-five plates are reproduced in quadratone and bound into cotton cloth-covered boards reminiscent of the era.

Imperfect copy with small bump to rear of cover.  Otherwise book is sealed and as new with pages unaffected.  See photo.

• Nazraeli 2021
• Slipcased hardback, 1st edition
• New

“This book is an early vignette from Michael Kenna’s far-reaching photographic odyssey. Some of these photographs, made almost forty years ago, are familiar, even famous, but many have never been seen before. They have been lying in wait, stored in a series of negative files. Normally, Kenna travels extensively and is not able to keep up with printing his extensive collection of negatives. It took the Covid pandemic and lockdown for him to search through his archives, rediscover these long-forgotten images, and print them in his darkroom. These photographs reveal a Northern England from Kenna’s youth that, for the most part, no longer exists.” — From the Introduction

Michael Kenna was born in the small industrial town of Widnes in northwest England. The youngest of six children, Kenna grew up in a poor, working-class, Irish-Catholic family. He attended a seminary school for seven years with the intention of becoming a priest, after which he studied at the Banbury School of Art and later at the London College of Printing, before moving to the USA in the late seventies.

The adjoining counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire, where Kenna photographed in the early eighties, have much in common regarding their industrial development. Fiercely competitive, they share a border, a spine of mountains known locally as the Pennines, which helps to produce rain. The rise of a powerful cotton and wool industry, and the building of innumerable mills, canals, railways, chimneys and terraced worker houses, have been attributed in part to these high levels of precipitation. The local textile industry proliferated until the second half of the twentieth century, when there was a sudden, rapid decline and eventual decimation. It was during this precise time period that Kenna returned to the area to photograph, during the day and also at night.

Kenna’s early photographs of England launched his career and brought him international acclaim; yet it wasn’t until last year, 2020, that he revisited this particular body of work to find many unprinted images. These discoveries are exquisitely presented in this important new Nazraeli Press monograph, Northern England 1983–1986.

Beautifully printed on a natural textured art paper, accompanied by an introductory text by Dr. Ian B Glover, the seventy-five plates are reproduced in quadratone and bound into cotton cloth-covered boards reminiscent of the era.

Signed and numbered edition of 100 copies, presented in a custom cloth covered slipcase.

• Nazraeli Press 2023
• Hardback, 1st edition
• New

In celebration of Michael Kenna’s fiftieth year as a photographer, we are thrilled to announce the publication of Michael Kenna: Photographs and Stories. This gorgeous new monograph, beautifully printed on Japanese Kasadaka paper and bound in custom deep blue cloth, is limited to 2,000 casebound copies. It is published in association with the Center for Photographic Art to coincide with a traveling exhibition opening at their historic Carmel, California exhibition space in November 2023.

Kenna has selected one image for each year beginning 1973, when he enrolled in the Banbury School of Art, and for each subsequent year. Following the “Photographs” section is “Stories,” in which Kenna gives context to each image and considers how it connected to his own life at the time. 

1st printing - in stock now.