Michael Kenna: Power Stations

Michael Kenna is a photographer I've stumbled upon through my researching. His fantastic photos of power station chimneys truly present a powerful feel to them. He took them all in black and white, and this limitation truly allows you to focus on the tonality, contrast, and texture of these longer exposures. The sky is soft, and well as the smooth whispy smoke given away from the chimneys. The project was long-lasting, capturing them between 1984 and 2003. It shows little in the way of change, which is usually what you'd see from a long span of time.

Ratcliffe Power Station, Study 2, Nottinghamshire, England, 1985

This dark feel mixed with longer exposure truly shows off what these giants structures are giving off, as they blend in with the rest of the sky clouding up. These much darker tones of the chimneys paint them in a more questionable light, revealing only little details of the edges, compared to the lighter grey sky that it's output merges with. The shadows of the CO2 give it a true sense of depth. The alluring smoke gently floats away, unknowingly harmful towards the environment that surrounds it.

Ratcliffe Power Station, Study 19, Nottinghamshire, England, 1984

This photo has a more distant and removed vantage point which truly considers the scale of these  grey giants, the smoke in the image completely originating from the facility. You can see a clear sky which is blocked by this hazy hot gas which reflects the light. The light itself, pollution from surrounding areas, and from within the facility itself. It's almost a self-contained location; creating energy by burning, and using energy to show the towers doing it. 

Ratcliffe Power Station, Study 45, Nottinghamshire, England, 2003

This later study shows that the CO2 output has truly engulfed it's origin. The gas seeps through the gaps of the chimneys, concealing where they end, suggesting an endless fog of chimneys. The central nature of the photo shows the leading lines to the bottom centre part of the photo, with gradients upwards drifting out of visibility. The black within the shadows suggest a darkness, mixed with an aesthetic beauty of which the photo beautifully captures the moment, with a sense of guilt towards the admiration of this image.

Ratcliffe Power Station, Study 31, Nottinghamshire, England, 1987

At a greater distance still, you can truly see this lineup of Ratcliffe. The little ambient light given off likely artificial, although with the smoke cascading out the top, you cannot know for sure. Thicker near the rim, the smoggy build up shrouds the beauty of the night sky, barely breaking out to show the stars. It goes without saying that this photo is of the highest contrast, which works well with the black and white style, although it leaves a lot of detail out, which can be both good and bad depending on the message. All of the remaining power station images can be found at the link below.

(http://www.michaelkenna.net/gallery.php?id=7)