Falaise d'Aval par Nuit, Etretat, France (2000)	December Thaw, Gulf of Finland, Russia (1999)	Piers End, Chatelaillon-Plage, France (2000)
A l'Aube, St. Mal, France (2000)	Palace Embankment, St. Petersburg (2000)	Charles Bridge, Study 8, Prague, Czech Republic (2000)
Roman Fountains, Peterhof, Russia (2000)	Swan Song, Prague, Czech Republic (1990)	Pier Eight, San Francisco, CA (2000)
Arigato Sugimoto San, Calais, France (1998)	Royal Balcony, Peterhof, Russia (1999)	Five Doors, Peterhof, Russia (1999)
Light on Water, Courances, France (1997)	Hermitage and Frozen Neva, St. Petersburg (1999)	Weather Patterns, Calais, France (1998)
Angel, Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Petersburg (1999)	Four A.M., Mont St. Michel, France (1998)

 
Michael Kenna has been photographing the landscape for more than twenty-five years, returning time and again to the gardens and cities of Europe capturing the ethereal light and silence of the early morning. Although Kenna never photographs people within the land, he has the uncanny ability to give manicured trees, stoic fountains and heroic statues a meditative human presence. This can be seen in the silhouetted trees covered with snow in Peterhof, Russia, haunted by the presence of Cossacks; in the curves created by the towers in Mont St. Michel, resembling the outline of two monks in prayer.

Kenna's recent work in Russia offers a view of the landscape inescapably still and crackling after a heavy snowfall. These photographs seem lit from within. In various images the snow glows with a cold light that is in stark contrast to the trees which populate the vista. Whether sculpted by man and alined in a perfect row or shaped by wind with jagged branches reaching for the sun, the silhouetted trees provide evidence of the harsh beauty of the Russian environment.

Along with cities in Russia, Kenna has continued to return to Mont St. Michele, creating new work which evokes the introspection of this meditative island a monastery and site for spiritual pilgrimages, where the presence of monks still exist, alternately appearing in the shadow of a window projected onto a wall and in the fleeting light of a dim stairwell. Kenna's photographs of Mont St. Michele entice you to leave the stress and rush of daily life and enter into a contemplative world void of constraints and daily routine.

Whether photographing the still white coldness of a Russian winter or the sculptured elegance of Versailles, Michael Kenna infuses his work with a solitary sense of place, capturing the moments between action. Kenna gives us a view of beauty in the landscape a sense of timelessness in our contemporary world.