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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Michael Kenna: Italy

Oct 1–31, 2020
14 E 80th St Penthouse, New York, NY 10075

As a child, the British photographer Michael Kenna dreamed of joining the priesthood for its holy loneliness. He wanted to be alone, a seemingly impossible state in his large working-class family. Beyond his aspirational daydreams, Kenna found respite by wandering in search of solitude. It was during these journeys that he found his true calling—photography. Roaming characterizes Kenna’s practice, but his work embodies stillness. “Film can accumulate light and record events that our eyes are incapable of seeing,” he told Dolby Chadwick Gallery in 2003. Kenna uses long exposure to illuminate what we’ve missed while blinking. His first virtual exhibition presents a selection of his images from Italy’s Abruzzo region, where Kenna found the back of the beyond along the River Po and elsewhere. —C.J.F.