Kenro Izu was born in Osaka, Japan in 1949. He started taking pictures of his native landscape in high school, and then studied photography at the Nihon University College of Art in Tokyo. He came to the United States when he was 23, and worked as a studio assistant for a fashion photographer in New York City. Three years later, he opened his own studio, which he continues to operate.

Izu has always been fascinated by ancient monuments. After photographing the pyramids near Giza in 1979, he was overwhelmed by the beauty, scale and spiritual power of the monuments, and he was inspired to search for other ancient sites.

Izu's photographic vision is complemented by a masterful printing technique. In 1983, at an auction preview, he saw a platinum print by Paul Strand that inspired him to learn the process. Since then, he has developed a reputation as one of the finest platinum printers in the country. However, he was unsatisfied. Izu wanted to produce large scale images without forsaking the fine quality of a contact print, so in 1984 with funds from an NEA grant, he constructed the largest format camera that he could handle alone: a 14 x 20 inch camera that allows him to combine the detail of a large contact print with the sensuous platinum/palladium process.