The Bridges of Michael Kenna
Robert Mann Gallery, New York
September 4 - October 18, 2025
Bridges span rivers, connect cities, and carry us over what once seemed impassable. Where once there was only a divide — a river too wide, a ravine too deep — now there is a line drawn through space. We drive over bridges, walk across them, sometimes without even thinking. Yet Michael Kenna impressively photographs these bridges stretching across the globe in a unique light of the feat of human construction through time.
Kenna’s first show with Robert Mann Gallery opened in 1997 around the time the movie, The Bridges of Madison County was released; a moving love story about a photographer on an assignment to shoot historic bridges. Michael Kenna shares this fascination in capturing these structures,
“Bridge structures are usually geometric and stationary with straight lines, verticals, horizontals and other angular constructs. The universe is constantly moving, flowing organic, uncontrollable and unpredictable. The abstract relationship between the two, almost like yin and yang, can be visually stunning and continues to fascinate and attract me.”--Michael Kenna
The bridges in this exhibition cross over bodies of water, from Sydney Harbour Bridge, Study 1, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to Brooklyn Bridge, Study 1, New York City, USA carrying multiple lanes of traffic, trains, and possibilities. While other small bridges such as Canal Bridge, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England and Ponte dei Sospiri, Venice, Italy stretch a short distance suitable only for individuals to journey across. Each bridge featured in the exhibition has its own historical significance and the possibility of one day being replaced. Michael Kenna beautifully captures the bridge’s story, often at dawn or dusk, along with often solidifying its place in the world.
What was once the end of the road becomes a place of crossing. What was once isolation becomes relationship. The landscape is no longer defined by separation, but by the possibility of reaching across. In The Bridges of Michael Kenna, the artist’s careful treatment of each composition is apparent from frame to frame, in which every detail is given its due consideration to express this relationship between the bridge and the land. The images in the exhibition represent over 50 years of Kenna’s exploration of this subject matter.
With dozens of monographs and hundreds of solo exhibitions held around the world, Michael Kenna is one of the most widely exhibited and beloved photographers working today. His work has been shown at the Tacoma Art Museum, the Palazzo Magnani Museum in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and Bibliothèque Nationale de France, to name a few. Kenna's photographs are included in many distinguished public collections including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Shanghai Art Museum; the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea; the Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague; Museum of Art and Photography, Bangalore, India; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The Bridges of Michael Kenna is on view in conjunction with the artist’s exhibition, Japan: A Love Story, at the International Center of Photography through September 28, 2025.
ROBERT MANN GALLERY
508 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001
