Latest Michael Kenna Quotes from Interviews

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• My advice to any budding artist is never to be satisfied with imitating others. This is but a means to an end. A serious artist will work with intensity to discover themselves, their own personal vision. I believe this is a fundamental aspect of the creative path.

  Michael Kenna

  Believe, Mean, Artist

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• Beauty is very much in the mind of the beholder.

  Michael Kenna

  Mind, Beholder

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• One advances by standing on the shoulders of giants, but the ultimate goal is to find one's own vision.

  Michael Kenna

  Goal, Vision, Giants

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• I would strongly encourage anybody embarking on photography as a career to embrace and enjoy the whole process. Being a photographer can be a wonderful way to experience the world.

  Michael Kenna

  Photography, Careers, Way

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• There are many aspects about what and why we photograph: visual pleasure, personal empathy, intellectual stimulation, technical excellence, etc. Serious photographers and artists will try to create works that are original. Over a career period they may develop a singular identity in their images.

  Michael Kenna

  Artist, Careers, Empathy

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• As a landscape photographer we should be open to possibilities, for one thing often leads to another.

  Michael Kenna

  Landscape, Photographer, Possibility

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• Craft is important, but cameras for their own sake are not. A sense of aesthetics, a connection with the subject matter, an enquiring and an inquisitive mind, these factors outweigh whatever equipment we use.

  Michael Kenna

  Mind, Important, Cameras

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• I don't think it is even possible to define what a good photograph is, so it is difficult to instruct anybody how to make one. Beauty and aesthetics are subjective, and very much in the mind of the beholder.

  Michael Kenna

  Thinking, Mind, Photograph

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• If I had to give advice to other photographers, I would first suggest quickly getting over the camera equipment questions. In my humble opinion, the make and format of a camera is ultimately low on the priority scale when it comes to making pictures.

  Michael Kenna

  Humble, Giving, Advice

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• Everybody now has a camera, whether it is a professional instrument or just part of a phone. Landscape photography is a pastime enjoyed by more and more. Getting it right is not an issue. It is difficult to make a mistake with the sophisticated technology we now have. Making a personal and creative image is a far greater challenge.

  Michael Kenna

  Photography, Mistake, Technology

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• There can be no doubt that probability increases with practice. Fortune favours the brave, fortune favours the prepared mind, and fortune favours those who work the hardest.

  Michael Kenna

  Practice, Brave, Doubt

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• I believe that photographers should be passionate, determined, disciplined and ready to seek out their own styles and identities.

  Michael Kenna

  Believe, Style, Identity

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• For me, the subtlety of black and white inspires the imagination of the individual viewer to complete the picture in the mind's eye. It doesn't attempt to compete with the outside world. I believe it is calmer and gentler than colour, and persists longer in our visual memory.

  Michael Kenna

  Memories, Believe, Eye

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• We see in colour all the time. Everything around us is in colour. Black and white is therefore immediately an interpretation of the world, rather than a copy.

  Michael Kenna

  Black And White, World, Interpretation

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• I don't have anything against colour. It is just not my first preference. I have always found black and white photographs to be quieter and more mysterious than those made in colour.

  Michael Kenna

  Black And White, Firsts, Mysterious

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• I enjoy places that have mystery and atmosphere, perhaps a patina of age, a suggestion rather than a description, a question or two. I look for memories, traces, evidence of the human interaction with the landscape. Sometimes I photograph pure nature, sometimes urban structures.

  Michael Kenna

  Memories, Two, Atmosphere

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• I believe that we photographers don't benefit very much with answers from other photographers. What is more beneficial is to ask questions of ourselves and see what thoughts float out from within.

  Michael Kenna

  Believe, Answers, Benefits

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• I prefer to think of photography as a never ending journey with infinite possibilities. I love to return to places to re photograph. Nothing is ever the same. The options are endless.

  Michael Kenna

  Photography, Journey, Thinking

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• Essentially, I look for what is interesting to me, out there in the three-dimensional world, and translate or interpret so that it becomes visually pleasing in a two-dimensional photographic print. I search for subject matter with visual patterns, interesting abstractions and graphic compositions.

  Michael Kenna

  Two, Interesting, Looks

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• For me, this is one of the advantages of not using digital, I never know when I have a good photograph! I practice doubt as a way to push myself into alternative compositions by selective focus, different speeds of exposure, and unusual perspectives.

  Michael Kenna

  Practice, Perspective, Focus

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• There is no one way of photographing anything. I don't believe there is even one best way of photographing any given subject.

  Michael Kenna

  Believe, Way, Given

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• I encourage playfulness and experimentation with both the camera and subject matter. Sometimes there is an obvious perspective, but it is important never to be satisfied with that.

  Michael Kenna

  Perspective, Important, Matter

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• If the quality of professional materials continues to erode or even dries up, then many of us silver photographers would have to follow the digital tidal wave. It certainly wouldn't be the end of the world, but in my opinion, having no silver material available would be a huge loss to photography.

  Michael Kenna

  Photography, Loss, Quality

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• The golden rule in the arts, as far as I am concerned, is that all rules are meant to be broken.

  Michael Kenna

  Art, Broken, Golden

  Source: www.smh.com.au

• Most of my work involves slowing down rather than speeding up. I prefer to look at prints than scans, and I prefer to look at original silver prints rather than digital prints. I prefer to look at fewer images, but spend time with those individual images.

  Michael Kenna

  Looks, Digital, Silver

  Source: www.smh.com.au