Rangefinder Magazine
January 2005

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Profile: Michael Kahn by Larry Singer
Selling Sails

Michael Kahn, pre-eminent sailboat photographer, would no doubt agree with Francis Drake.
For Kahn, capturing the geometric, abstract beauty of backlit canvas sails billowing in the wind; the stark contrast of a massive and magnificent white racing hull against a dark and swelling sea, or the mirror-like reflection of a motionless sailing vessel asleep on a still lake in the early morning, on film, is an artistic passion that has become a way of life.

Kahn’s formidable photographic skills—and the public’s enthusiastic acceptance of his artistic sensibilities—can best be put into perspective with the revelation that since Kahn’s black-and-white posters of sailboats first appeared in the wall decor departments of emporiums such as Pottery Barn and Pier One Imports, close to a half million of his images have been sold.

Like many photographers, Kahn’s love affair with photography began when he was a young.

“My mother gave me a camera when I was 13 years old,” he recounts. “I had a great time learning in the high school darkrooms. I enjoyed photography, so I pretty much explored it. When I finished high school, I took a job in a portrait studio with a photographer named Rick Davis. I was his lab rat. I pretty much did his black-and-white developing and printing. It gave me tremendous technical background.

When Rick decided he wanted to become an advertising photographer, I made the transition to advertising with him. We did commercial work, capability brochures, annual reports and products. This added to my technical foundation.”

Kahn, who is 43, lives in Unionville, in southeastern Pennsylvania about an hour from Philadelphia.
Before he began shooting boats in 1995, Kahn produced a large-format black-and-white coffee table book on the Brandywine River.

“I followed the river from its start up in Amish country, down to where it empties into the Delaware river, past the mills where DuPont got its start making gun powder,” Kahn says. “It’s a historical river and I wanted to create a classic collection of photographs that portrayed the landscape, the architecture and the people. I shot it while I was still working for Rick Davis at the commercial studio. When the book was published in 1990, it sold very well.”

Kahn’s efforts in finding a publisher for his book, and discovering where his work could be marketed, taught him valuable lessons that would serve him well later when seeking out galleries and other vendors for individual pieces of his photographic art.

“I didn’t have a literary agent,” Kahn explains, “so I started trying to sell the concept in New York City, and I realized the subject matter of the book did not have a large enough marketplace for the big publishers. I then started looking for a more regional publisher, and I found one called Jared out of Wilmington, Delaware, that was willing to print and market it on a more local level. It was a matter of realizing what the marketplace was for the book, which turned out to be the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. I believe 10,000 copies of the book were printed, and they sold out within a year or two. We never reprinted it, but it was a great business card.”

At that point, Kahn made the decision to go out on his own.

After freelancing for five years, the turning point in his career came when Kahn shot a series of images of a 100-year-old boat. When he sent the pictures to a regional magazine, they gave him a six-page spread, and the positive response to his photo story convinced Kahn to take more pictures of boats.

“After that spread was published,” he says, “the phone started to ring. I then went on to introduce the portfolio of limited edition handmade black-and-white prints to numerous art galleries.

“It was basically serendipity,” he says. “I had not planned on photographing that first boat. Now I plan trips to photograph boats sometimes more than a year in advance.”

For Kahn’s last photographic junket in April, he flew in to Antigua only after first prearranging a chartered chase boat and driver to take him out to photograph his seagoing subjects on the racecourse.
Kahn shoots with a vintage Hasselblad 500CM and does most of his work with his 50, 80 and 150mm lenses.

Unlike many of the photographers who cover sailing races, Kahn is more interested in capturing art than reporting reality.

“Since I’m shooting black and white,” he says, “it’s not so much the action of the race that I’m seeking, as much as the interaction of the boats, the waves and the sky. I’m trying to capture the esthetics of sailing more than boats racing around the buoys.”

In addition to the posters of his work, which are produced by Bruce McGaw Graphics out of West Nyak, New York, Kahn has 32 art galleries and contemporary photo galleries around the country selling individual, hand-printed photographs.

“I produce handmade prints in two sizes for the galleries,” he says, “The 14x14-inch print retails for $1100, and the 19x19-inch print retails for $1950. Due to requests for photographs larger than I can make in my darkroom, I have released a series of 30-inch digital prints, in editions of 50. The prints retail for $3000 each and are produced by Brilliant Studio, a local printer.”

Kahn’s work is so popular, that a company called Caliber Art was formed by two businessmen who came to Kahn and said they would like to start a business with the sole goal of marketing Kahn’s work.

“They built a web site for me,” Kahn says, “and they manage it. My poster publisher has probably sold close to a half million posters of my work in the past five years. My calendars are published by Brown Trout, and my greeting card company is Nouvelles Images.”

On April 26, Kahn’s second book, Spirit of Sailing, published by Running Press out of Philadelphia, was officially released to the public. The 128-page tome is described by his publisher as a “sumptuous coffee-table volume” that provides “a visual escape that inevitably evokes a longing for the sea.”

This widespread acceptance of his work, he admits, enables him to do nothing but just pack up his gear and head out on seagoing photo shoots about six times a year. The rest of the time he spends marketing his work.

“I am constantly marketing,” he admits. “I have to constantly supply fresh art to my calendar, greeting card and poster publishers, as well as my fine art galleries. Plus, I’m also always looking for new galleries.”

“I think the reason I’ve had success with photography,” he says in an attempt to summarize his remarkable career, “is because I’ve learned the science of photography as well as the craft. I’ve read all the Ansel Adams books, and I really have an understanding of how a good print, a good image, is made. I think it’s incredibly important to have those skills.

“I think the other thing I do well,” he concludes, “is pre-visualizing the image before I even make the exposure. If I’m shooting for a book or a magazine, I see the image on the page of the book, or I see a print on somebody’s wall of somebody’s house. I see the finished image before I press the shutter button. After that, the rest is intuitive because I know how to arrive at the end product and that comes only from training.”

Michael Kahn’s web site address is www.michaelkahn.com/.

Larry Singer is an award-winning writer and photographer living in Lauderhill, Florida. His web site is homepage.mac.com/larrysinger, and he can be reached at larrysinger@mac.com/.