While Michael Kahn’s photographs now on view at the Massoni Gallery in Chestertown stands out on a multitude of levels, the fact that he still produces these stunning images with such antiqued tools as film, negatives, and spending hours in a darkroom makes his work real labors of love as well as skill.
Armed with his trusty 1964 Hasselblad camera with its capacity to take only 12 shots per roll, Kahn has spent the last twenty years recording the remarkable beauty of ships and boats on the Chesapeake, in regattas, or lying still in small lakes the “old-fashioned way.”
Unlike today’s digital cameras and the computer software that has replaced the traditional darkroom, Michael has never been tempted to move into this new era of photography. Part of his reasoning is related to a sense of tradition, and the control he maintains in moving images from negatives to large format prints, but also because this process demands that one take time. There are no easy shortcuts, and for Kahn, that means better photos.
In his Spy interview, Michael talks about his lifelong commitment to the old ways of producing photography, as well as his enjoyment of the physical elements of creation that come with this process.
This video is approximately two minutes in length. For more information about Michael Kahn’s show in Chestertown please go here.
Michael Kahn | Summer 2017
Massoni Art Gallery
203 High St, Chestertown
June 24 – July 16
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