Confessionali

Description

There is in a church, the silence that so enthralls Michael and that his images are always permeated by; and there is also a presence, that of the confessional, that evokes in him the mystery and poetry that he pursues and tries to capture in some of the views of nature and of the world described above.

The series of confessionals photographed by Kenna enriches the profile of his forty years of untiring work as a photographer, carried out with passion and devotion. How many miles has he walked, climbing up hills and mountains, along the shores of seas, lakes and rivers, venturing into parks, woods and city streets? How many hours has he spent awaiting an event, perhaps in the middle of the night, to capture the unfolding trajectory in the sky? I have often asked myself…

Sandro Parmigianni

As a growing boy, I spent hours in our local church praying and listening, intrigued and absorbed by the light on the altar which symbolized that God was at home, hidden in the tabernacle, in the form of a host, a wafer of bread which had been consecrated during an earlier sacred mass. As a photographer I have long been fascinated by memories and traces, stories that have unfolded over time, atmospheres that are left behind, remnants and remains. These images of confessional boxes in Reggio Emilia symbolize what I continue to search for – the invisible within the visible, the intangible contained in the tangible, the illusion of reality.

Michael Kenna