In 2007, Michael Kenna visited the Chiesa di Santo Stefano in Reggio Emilia and began a series of photographs that initiated a focused, contemplative body of work on confessionals, fixed wooden booths inside a Catholic church, designed specifically for the sacrament of confession. In Italian churches, confessionals are often more decorative than in many other countries, reflecting local craftsmanship and the importance of visual beauty in church interiors.

Returning to Reggio Emilia in the years that followed, Kenna developed this series between 2007 and 2016. Produced exclusively within the region, the photographs share the varied architectural forms of confessionals, reflecting his engagement with these intimate and symbolic spaces. This series also addresses the tradition of typologies in photography by exploring subtle variations within a single subject.

“These confessional images symbolize what I keep looking for: the invisible through the visible, the intangible contained in the tangible, the illusion of reality. If words, thoughts, and emotions could be made visible, confessionals – these containers of memories – would reveal a multitude of hidden secrets…” -Michael Kenna

Michael Kenna is known for his mysterious photographs, often made at dawn or in the dark hours of night, and concentrates primarily on the interaction between the natural landscape and human-made structures. Kenna is both a diurnal and nocturnal photographer, fascinated by light when it is most pliant. With long exposures lasting from several minutes to many hours, his photographs often capture details the human eye cannot perceive. Kenna works in the traditional, non-digital, gelatin silver process.

During Kenna’s fifty-plus-year career, he has had an extensive international career; notable solo shows include presentations at the International Center for Photography in New York, the Musée Guimet in Paris, and the Kahitsukan Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art in Japan, alongside major gallery exhibitions in cities such as Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong. His group exhibitions have included international touring shows and institutional presentations across Europe, the United States, and Asia. Kenna’s most significant awards include being named Officer and earlier Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters (2022, 2000), the Higashikawa Special Photographer Award (2016), the Hae-sun Lee Photography Award (2013), and the Imogen Cunningham Award (1981). His photographs are held in major permanent collections, including the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the National Gallery of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and numerous other leading museums and institutional collections worldwide.

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