Michael Kenna

Michael Kenna, an English Photographer is well known for his black and white images, often times taken at dawn, dusk, or night. His images often have very high contrast, while still featuring a wide variety of greys in-between.

This image in Japan demonstrates Kenna's impressive printing/processing abilities. The subtle contrast between the sky and snow is still present while maintaining the strong silhouette of the tree. His use of rule of thirds in this image is fairly satisfying. This image is almost painterly in a way, especially with the amount of control he has over shading. 

This Japanese city skyline captures the heavy light pollution in a pretty way. Each of the buildings have their own shades of grey, again showing Kenna's outstanding ability to process images in the dark room, as well as his ability to properly expose to begin with. He's clearly in complete control of his prints. The darkest/tallest building is centered near the right third of the frame, nicely setting up the scene and grabbing the viewer's attention.

This last image taken from Australia shows a really nice gradient between the water and the sky. His deep contrasts continue to impress me, especially with how intense the different shades of grey really are in this photo. The sky also has an odd sense of movement the way all the greys blend together.