For over thirty years, Michael Kenna has photographed temples, shrines, gardens, seascapes and landscapes, in black and white, throughout Japan. Ten years ago, he also began to photograph female nudes in various locations in Japan. ‘Rafu’ consists of 41 nude photographic portraits of Japanese women, taken between 2008 and 2017. A selection of these photographs was unveiled to the public for the first time at Paris Photo in November 2018. 

The Japanese women who modeled were actresses, dancers, office workers, photographers and yoga practitioners. “Their willingness to express themselves in front of the camera and their trust in my integrity as a photographer, enabled us to engage in creative visual explorations and conversations”, says Kenna. “The human body is an absolutely amazing, mysterious miracle in a myriad of ways”, adds the British photographer. “I view both historical and contemporary creative representations of the nude as open invitations to explore this esthetic challenge. My efforts may add little or nothing to the enormous existing mountain of artistic treasures, but that is not important. This is another chapter in an ongoing story”.

Artist Bio

Michael Kenna (b.1953) is a photographer who was born in Widnes, England, and is best known for his photographs of black-and-white landscapes. Firstly, he was a student at the London College of Printing. Afterwards, he began working as an artist and a photographer.

《裸婦》系列是 Kenna 於10年間多次到訪日本時拍攝而成，而他鏡頭下的女性均為日本舞者、演員、 上班族、攝影師和瑜珈學者。儘管他從未在日本居住，亦非當地人，但他於過去30年所拍下的日本寺廟、神社、花園、海景和風景作品，其極致的美學及詩意已令他成為一位極受敬佩的攝影大師。《裸婦》由2008年至2017年之間拍攝的41張日本女性裸體照片結集而成；這系列照片的精選作品於2018年11月在巴黎攝影展上首次對外展出。

Kenna 說：「她們願意在鏡頭前表現自己，並相信我作為攝影師的誠信，這促使我們共同達至富創造性的視覺探索和對話。」這位英國攝影師補充說：「人體是無數種令人驚艷的神秘奇蹟，我將裸體的歷史和當代創意表現形式一同視為探索美學的公開挑戰邀請。對現存的巨大藝術寶藏，我的努力可能幾乎沒有帶來甚麼得益，但這並不重要，這只是正在進行的故事中的另一章節。」

Michael Kenna，生於1953年，是一位出生於英格蘭威德尼斯的攝影師，以黑白風景攝影作品而聞名。畢業於London College of Printing（1973-1976）的專業攝影課程，數年後他從英國搬家到三藩市，並開始從事攝影工作。