Michael Kenna: Celebrating Fifty Years exhibits a beautiful reflection of Kenna’s vision of the world spanning half of a century. The exhibition journeys from panoramic views of Northamptonshire, England, to the desert dunes of Merzouga, Morocco, to the tranquil coasts of Hokkaido, Japan, to Venice, Italy to name a few.

Kenna’s keen eye radiates through the long exposures of morning clouds and the motif of birds gliding through the sky. Kenna beautifully captures the geometrics of ancient Stonehenge as well as seaweed farms and a lone-fishnet structure in Biwa Lake. The selection navigates places both foreign and familiar through black-and-white scenes full of spacious calm and the guiding air of the artist himself.

All of the prints are beautiful renderings, traditional silver prints made in the darkroom and toned using Sepia by the artist. Kenna’s renowned pairing of natural landscapes and human-made structures, captured as the sun peaks over the horizon or in twilight, asks viewers to consider what lies just beyond the visible. Kenna’s curation properly reflects his intricate skill and sense of adventure with views of the city that never sleeps across from medieval Pacentro to the icy sheets of St. Petersburg, Russia juxtaposing the misty, rolling mountains of Yunnan, at the most eastern tip of the Himalayas.

Kenna's photographs have been featured in over four hundred and fifty solo exhibitions in galleries and museums around the world, and are in over one hundred permanent institutional collections. His contemplative and transportive photographs have resonated with those who have a love of nature’s inherent beauty and the sublime.

The monograph Photographs and Stories contains one image for each year of Kenna's photography journey, beginning in 1973 (when he enrolled in the Banbury School of Art). Following the “Photographs” section of the book is “Stories,” in which the artist discloses how the photography relates to his own life’s situation at the time.