Michael Kenna | Des oiseaux (On birds)

French edition. English language edition out of print but there's very little text anyway!

Publisher's description

A master of landscape photography, Michael Kenna's images reveal a world that is almost evanescent. One where diaphanous light enshrouds nature in mystery, with islands, rivers, and even summits standing out in the distance. “In all of my work there is a certain prevailing theme which has something to do with memory, with time, with change.” Birds soar overhead, tracing aerial figures in fleecy skies, come to rest on a branch, or fly gracefully over hazy expanses of water. Suspended flight, halted moments in time—one that is frozen, immutable.

Shades of gray and depth of field give Michael Kenna’s photographs a somewhat melancholic feel. All is silence. Like paintings in the grand classical tradition, Kenna’s photographs of birds reflect nature devoid of any human presence, where birds alone reign.

This publication is part of the Des oiseaux (On birds) collection celebrating, through the vision of different artists, their immense presence in a world where they are now vulnerable. Accompanying these photographs, the ornithologist Guilhem Lesaffre writes a special essay. Titles in this collection include: Graciela Iturbide, Yoshinori Mizutani,  Bernard Plossu, Pentti Sammallahti, and Terri Weifenbach.