Carlsbad to host famed photographer

By: BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer | Friday, June 1, 2007 12:50 AM PDT ∞

CARLSBAD ---- A famed photographer known for his landscape shots will give a free lecture Saturday night at Carlsbad's Dove Lane library complex.

Michael Kenna, a San Francisco-based photographer, regularly travels the world and rarely is available for public appearances, so Carlsbad is lucky to have booked him, said Karen McGuire, curator of exhibitions at Carlsbad's William D. Cannon Art Gallery.

McKenna will come to Carlsbad discuss a somber subject: his 12-year project to document the Nazi concentration camps of World War II and what they look like today. Some of the 10,000 photographs he took of concentration camps in nine countries are on display at the library complex's art gallery through Sunday.

Titled "Impossible to Forget: the Nazi Camps 50 Years After," the exhibit's haunting, black and white images show railroad lines leading into the camps, barbed-wire fencing and guard towers on the perimeters, as well as the torture chambers and ovens inside.

"They're powerful photographs, and really quite overwhelming when you see them all together," McGuire said.

There are no people in these pictures ---- just stark, empty scenes of what people left behind.

Photo captions shock viewers with their simplicity. "Eye Glasses, Auschwitz, Poland, 1993," reads one label next to a huge pile of twisted, wire-rim frames.

"Every photograph ... hits you in one way or another," McGuire said.

It took six months of phone calls and e-mails to book Kenna for Saturday's appearance. What cinched the detail for the avid marathon runner was the fact that San Diego's Rock 'n' Roll Marathon is the same weekend, she said.

Kenna couldn't be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

McGuire said he has told exhibit organizers that he was first intrigued with the camps as a student when he saw an image on a photo developing tray taken by another student.

"He couldn't stop thinking about that photograph," she said.

Kenna's collection of images has been on a U.S. tour for four years. Sunday is its last day in Carlsbad, then the collection heads to Kansas City for its final stop on the tour, McGuire said.

His appearance is set for 6 p.m. Saturday in the library's Schulman Auditorium. Free tickets will be distributed starting at 5 p.m.

Organizers aren't sure how many people will show for the Carlsbad exhibit. An appearance last year by science fiction author Ray Bradbury attracted hundreds of people ---- hours before the event began, the line wrapped around the building and many people who came were turned away.

"I think Ray Bradbury is sort of a household name," McGuire said. "I think people may recognize a Michael Kenna photograph, but not his name. (But) most photographers and people interested in photography are well aware of his work."

People who arrive early can tour the gallery. It will be open until Kenna's roughly 60-minute lecture begins, McGuire said.

Lecture by Michael Kenna

When: 6 p.m. Saturday

Where: Schulman Auditorium, Carlsbad City Library Complex, 1775 Dove Lane

Things to Note: Admission tickets distributed at 5 p.m.

Gallery hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays

Contact: William D. Cannon Gallery (760) 602-2021

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