Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #117241 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 108 pages

Customer Reviews

BEAUTIFUL!!!
This is another fine offering from the good people at Nazraeli... Makers of EXTRAORDINARILY beautiful limited edition art books, and this one is NO exception.

Housed in a gorgeous black silk covered folding case, the red silk cloth cover of the book just visually stuns when the covers (three panels) are opened. The cover panels wrap around the book and fasten shut with ivory-colored japanese bookbinding clasps.

A beautiful gift!

The photos are stunning, printed with utmost care at exact size with light spot-varnishing on the images so that they pop off of the paper. The subject matter here is landscapes in Japan, sometimes very minimal and always meditative.

Get it while you can. Give it as a gift. Buy it for yourself and just look at it every few days... You will love it.

Excellent Presentation
Michael Kenna never fails to delight his audience. The exquisite presentation of this book both represents and reinforces his Occidental sensibilities demonstrated in his prints. Other reviewers have done an excellent job of describing the above. The photographs, as usual, are given the respect they deserve by the book's designer and the outstanding printing. I do not understand what is missing but the body of work is not consistently satisfying as I have come to expect using Mr. Kenna's high standards. Since I have not seen any of these prints themselves, I simply sense that somethings are missing in some of the reproductions.

It is likely that the nuances found in this particular book's original prints simply cannot all be equally translated successfully in offset printing. Continuous tone images on fiber paper are not the same experience or consist of the same material as their reminders. Nazraeli prints all of his books expertly. However, nothing can replace the original photographs and I suspect any limitations come from the medium itself. Mr. Kenna's work is very challenging and even the originals benefit from viewing under appropriate lighting conditions.

Nonetheless, falling short of perfection does not mean falling short of excellence. It is still stunning and it will probably become one of those valuable favorites cherished among collectors.

About This Book
Artist Book and Exhibition Monograph. Collection of photographs on subject. Possibly the photographer's single most beautiful book. The true first. Precedes all other editions. One of the most exquisite productions ever made by Michael Kenna, Chris Pichler, and Nazraeli Press: Oversize-volume format. A large book in square shape. Red silk cloth boards wrapped in handsome black silk folding slipcase in the Japanese style, with white toggles at the ends. Photographs by Michael Kenna. Text in Japanese and English by Kotaro Iizawa. Printed in Tokyo, Japan to the very highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Published on the occasion of a series of exhibitions in the United States and Japan. "Michael Kenna's photographs have long inspired words such as 'mysterious', 'elegant' and 'hauntingly beautiful', adjectives that likewise describe the Japanese landscape. These photographs are the result of an ideal pairing of artist and subject. Kenna has had a large following in Japan ever since his first exhibition there in 1987. His many subsequent exhibitions and publications in Japan have provided him with ample opportunities to visit and photograph. During the past several years, as this project began to take shape, Kenna's trips became more frequent and intense. The resulting images are stunning" (Publisher's blurb). "He has been reflective when others have been militant, romantic when others have been skeptical. Such isolation can starve all but the most independent of talents, but for these it can provide a sanctuary where visions can develop undisturbed. Kenna is one of these" (The Times of London). Michael Kenna's best book thus far. © 2006, ModernRare.com