Michael Kenna: Mont-Saint-Michel,15 Signed Platinum Prints, 17 of 60

History: In 2007, fine press photography book publisher 21st Editions released Mont-Saint-Michel. Limited to 60 copies worldwide, the hand-bound collection contains 15 original platinum prints (fourteen bound and one free-standing platinum print entitled, “Mont-Saint-Michel, 1991” that is suitable for framing). Each print is fully signed by Michael Kenna with the free standing photograph also signed in full on the rectro. This copy, 17 of 60, was presented to Lance Speer (21st Editions Contributing Editor and Director of Marketing and writer of the original essay contained in the book entitled “Memory as Muse: Michael Kenna at Mont-Saint-Michel”) upon completion of the project. The entire edition sold out, sight unseen, in only fourteen days.

Details of the Book and Prints: For years Michael Kenna has been recognized as one of the world’s leading photographers, an artist with so great a grasp of place that his way of seeing Stonehenge, Versailles, Easter Island, Hokkaido, and elsewhere has become "our" way of seeing them. Kenna has now turned his eye to Mont-Saint-Michel where light dawns through graceful arches, cascades down stairways and roadways, wraps itself around 900 year old Gothic architecture in a delicate embrace as it seeps into otherwise impermeable stone to illuminate it from within. Kenna has indeed created the photographic portrait of the island and its architecture, a body of work which rivals and complements Henry Adams’ classic Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, the famed book which is the verbal portrait of the Mount. This handmade, limited edition unites Adams’ words with Kenna’s images and contains a short introduction by John Wood and a scholarly essay by Lance Speer.

Each signed and numbered copy of Mont-Saint-Michel is hand-bound and printed in letterpress on handmade cotton rag paper. This gorgeous handmade volume is housed in a custom clamshell box. The book measures 16” x 14.25” with each of the 14 fully signed platinum prints measuring 9” x 9”. The free-standing platinum print is housed in a folded, letterpress printed presentation folder. The book is signed and numbered by Michel Kenna, John Wood, Lance Speer, and the publisher, Steven Albahari on the limitation page. A Letter of Provenance from Lance Speer is included.

The book, prints, and case are all in MINT condition.

Awards: 21st Editions was awarded the prestigious Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Award Silver Medal in 2008 for “Best Book Arts Craftsmanship” for its publication “Mont-Saint-Michel.”

Photographs of book, the free standing platinum print, and several examples of platinum prints contained in the book appear in the photo section of the listing.