Michael Kenna began photographing Ratcliffe Power Station in the early 1980s and returned repeatedly to the site. Published by Nazraeli Press in 2004, this book brings together 49 duotone plates from that sustained encounter. Cooling towers, steam and surrounding ground become elements in a study of industrial form. The pictures give a familiar piece of energy infrastructure a scale and atmosphere that ordinary views of a power station seldom invite us to consider.

Kenna’s treatment depends on the meeting of solid structures and uncertain light. In the publisher’s gallery, towers emerge from dark skies or dissolve into pale cloud; the same site changes character as its outlines become more or less distinct. These variations make the sequence worth reading across successive spreads. A single photograph can establish a striking silhouette, while the book allows the reader to compare how atmosphere reshapes the subject over time.

Jeremy Reed contributes the introduction. The 64-page hardcover uses matt art paper for the duotone reproductions, giving the images a setting suited to their muted tonal range. Kenna’s industrial childhood in northwest England provides context for his interest in such landscapes, although the photographs do not require a biographical explanation to hold attention. Their repeated examination of one place makes the project an accessible point of entry into his approach to landscape photography.

For a collector, the book offers a concentrated industrial series rather than a broad career survey. Its value as a reading object lies in the comparisons it makes possible: towers against sky, weight against vapour, and architectural repetition against changing weather. The substantial page size leaves room to examine these relationships. Reed’s text and the photographic sequence together give the project a durable form beyond the experience of seeing an isolated print.