KISHAN THAKRAR
A LEVEL ART PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO
Michael Kenna - Artist Study
Michael Kenna
Michael Kenna is a well-known photographer who is known for his black and white photographs. A number of his photos feature atmospheric perspective. As he is limited to black and white, contrast and brightness/exposure is key, and is more prominent in his photos. The fog and mist helps capture a broader range of contrasts and tones in the images, a feature of which I would like to incorporate in my photos. There are also various different styles of black and white, and if I were to replicate this style I would probably go for a high contrast black and white effect on Photoshop or Lightroom, because most of his images feature high contrasts with whites being very white and blacks being very black, almost alienating the photos from their original state completely. This technique of isolation allows the images to become a bit more surreal and ambiguous, rather than generic colour images of the same locations. The light is therefore evenly dispersed due to the combination of the mist and the long exposure. The darker areas appear more powerful and whiter areas more cooler.
This image, taken in Vietnam, shows a heavy atmosphere in the background contrasting with the boats in the foreground, appearing more prominently. I particularly like how the water doesn't appear as a texture of water, but instead a solid colour, almost seamless with the sky above. This is created from the black and white effect and also the exposure techniques used.
Its simplicity also allows the viewer to focus on the distance represented by light and dark; a prime feature of atmospheric perspectives.
The f-stop used is also quite high on all his photos, allowing lots of light to come in with not a great deal of Depth of Field blur, so that the background objects can be seen without being obscured. The image also has a tilt-shift feel to it, due to the foreground objects moving over the exposure, and the distance blurred slightly.
Personally, in this photo, I think that the darkness of the boats in the foreground contrasting against the white water is representing how the modern world is disrupting the peace and calmness of the environment, and almost brings about a noise to the photo that would otherwise be quite quiet.
Another image from his Vietnam series was this, a slightly simpler image but still equally as effective as the others.
I particularly like the many different layers of depth and light that fade off into the sky, with Kenna's style of a dark, bold foreground object standing loudly in the middle, juxtaposing against the clean white background.
The composition of this image adds to its haunting look, with the rule of thirds applied where the main contrast of tones appears in the middle third and the upper and lower thirds have a plain white/grey colour.
Images like this rely immensely on the use of light, and the environment that has created the atmospheric look in the distance.
Kenna uses a mixture of contemporary and traditional techniques on his photographs, but importantly he predominantly uses non-digital tools and works with negatives in the darkroom. In a sense this adds to his style of work, because the film cameras have the ability to capture something that can be manipulated in a way that cannot be replicated quite the same on digital mediums.
My favourite image was this, taken in Arles, France. I love the way that there is a clear fade from the bottom to the top, almost giving a very detailed image simplicity.
The French-style buildings that gather in a cocophony portray atmospheric perspective perfectly, with a very contrasting dark foreground with a light background.
It also appears that the background is quite blurred in the distance, which in this sense does obscure the background, but in a beneficial way to the overall effect of the photo, because there is enough detail in the bottom half of the image to counteract this.
With the film images, I like the little quirks and scratches that naturally occurr within production of the image in the darkroom, because it adds an organic element to the image, where not everything is perfect and ordered, but adds to the disorganised nature of the image.
Kenna talks about capturing a feeling, as well as documenting reality, and how that influences him when taking photos. He would photograph early in the morning because he liked the atmospheric 'morning chatter' in the air, which declutters the background and can add a minimalistic look to the image. The lack of colour compliments this feature, allowing for a mood to also be captured, not just a picture:
The alignment of the bridge in the following photo helps accentuate the perspectives, and the clear fading into the distance which reduces the distinctive tones and contrast undoubtedly features an atmospheric perspective, although different to his other work where parts of the image can be very obscured by the atmosphere.
Golden Gate Bridge, Study 10, San Francisco, California USA 1990 © Michael Kenna
Huangshan Mountains, Study 30, Anhui China 2009 © Michael Kenna
Kenna Style Images
My images in the style of/inspired by Michael Kenna:
Photoshoot - All unedited photos (Click to enlarge)
= Photo taken by me
The following images are from a photoshoot during a foggy morning, where I was able to capture a lot of atmospheric photos.
To keep with the Kenna style, after selecting my favourite images, I edited them in lightroom, using High Contrast black and white settings, and editing the tone curves to suit each photo, and bring out the atmosphere. In some, particularly with rays of light, I also enhanced the rays by using the Target Tool to edit Luminance. I dragged this out on the areas immediately next to the rays, which would enhance just the rays, and not the rest of the light tones in the image.
Edited Photos
I felt that some images were nice where they fully followed the Kenna style of square images and high contrast black and white, however a few I preferred in their original aspect ratio, for example in the image above, being square would've cropped half the rays of light off. I also raised the lower tones in the tone curve slightly to create a more modern-style black and white effect, where the blacks are lighter:
Normal tone curve
Raised blacks (If raised further, the blacks would then turn negative and start becoming white/inverted)
I also applied the same settings of contrast, exposure, tone, etc. to other images, but without the black and white filter, which gave interesting results. I liked these because it wasn't constricted to black and white only, and in some cases I preferred the colour edits, so here are a few colour edits of the atmospheric photos that I liked, some using the same photos seen above:
I also gathered a number of images I took on holiday over Summer, which I edited in a Kenna style:
These images also worked well in colour:
Here I wanted to contrast the images from their black and white alternatives, by really making the colours stand out, to show how important they are, or alternatively how different the black and white looks. For the image directly above, I also captured atmospheric perspective in the distance as well as the reflections at sunset, and I enhanced the yellow sky, which I juxtaposed against a colder, bluer foreground. In its black and white alternative, I cropped it to focus on the atmospheric perspective layers in the background, much like the compositional style of Kenna. For the image to the left, I made sure the blues stood out towards the horizon, and warmed the green tones in the front. Again, this image was cropped for the black and white version, to allow a more Kenna-like photo. In colour, I felt that this would not be suited to the crop, as the people in the foreground are quite important in the photo.
