Mona Kuhn (born 1969 in São Paulo, Brazil) is a Brazilian-born American contemporary photographer best known for her large-scale photographs of the human form and essence. An underlying current in Kuhn's work is her reflection on our longing for spiritual connection and solidarity. As a result, her approach is unusual in that she develops close relationships with her subjects, resulting in images of remarkable intimacy. Kuhn's work shows the human body in its natural state while simultaneously re-interpreting the nude as a contemporary canon of art. Her work often references classical themes, has been exhibited internationally, and is held in several collections including the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Hammer Museum and the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
Mona Kuhn began taking photographs at age 12, when her parents gave her a Kodak camera for her birthday.[1] Kuhn has attributed her interest to her early formative years:
"I didn't grow up with cousins and I didn't grow up with grandparents … so I think I always had, since I was a child, a slight inner need to bond or to create a small family. I think that the people that I photograph, if I look at all my series, were all people that could have been my extended family. That's how I treat them. And that's the real little seed that maybe comes from infancy."[2]
Kuhn chose the nude as the focus of her work because it represents a timeless canon and she was interested in the idea of the body as residence. Her early work focused on details of the body in black and white; she is quoted as saying:
"I was not yet comfortable photographing the full figure. As I became more comfortable and as I stepped back with the camera and started seeing more of the environment, I realized right away that color was very important … that color was all around and balancing color became very important for me, and it also became a source of inspiration. Every new series starts with me imagining a palette; and then I grow from there."[5]
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Kuhn described her approach to photographing the nude saying: "Photographing someone in the nude is my attempt to reach that moment of perfect balance, the light of awareness in the way we perceive life to be. The nude is present in my work not as a one-dimensional physical manifestation, but rather as a proof of our being, our presence in time, and ultimately caring for what will be lost."[6] She further explains, "I'm most comfortable representing the nude as minimal, timeless, somewhat monastic, and mostly pensive. I enjoy the nuances, the elegance of simplicity; the rustic forms because it brings us close to our own nature and sense of self. My works are not meant to be of this time, but to transcend, in its basic form, the elements of time."[6]
Kuhn's first monograph titled Photographs was published by Steidl in 2004. Photographs was followed by Evidence in 2007, which was accompanied with a short story by Frederic Tuten. Her next project, released in 2010, was a return to her homeland of Brazil, with a series titled Native and an accompanying monograph of the same name published by Steidl.[7] In 2011, Kuhn released Bordeaux Series, also with a monograph published by Steidl, which is a collection of traditional portraits and landscapes.[8] Kuhn's work has been described as "intimate and sensuous," "dreamlike" and "classical" in composition
and her approach is unusual in that she develops close relationships with her subjects, resulting in images of remarkable intimacy.[7][9][10] Kuhn describes her relationship with her subjects saying: "My best work starts when they forget they are naked. We entered a parallel reality, something that is lifted from the everyday, a quiet moment that is floating there."[3]
Kuhn describes her visual vocabulary as figurative, however recent works have begun explorations with abstraction. "I wanted to escape the body and photograph the human presence coming in and out of evidence, at times overexposed, at times hidden in shadows, like a desert mirage, a solitary figure who could have been the very first or last."[11]
In 2018, Kuhn released two monographs: She Disappeared into Complete Silence (Steidl) and Bushes & Succulents (Stanley Barker).[12] Kuhn selected American architect Robert Stone's glass house in the California desert as the setting for She Disappeared into Complete Silence saying: "In a way, the glass house with mirrors felt like an extension of my own camera, and the perfect setting for the series "She Disappeared into Complete Silence." In that space, we were able to push representation into a series of images emphasizing a refracted presence and its metaphors. Many of the images were shot by observing tangents, and I enjoyed working with variations of basically the same material: sand, glass, and mirrors."[4] In a 2018 interview with Kuhn, Betsy Morales interpreted Bushes & Succulents for Museé Magazine, "Pastel succulents and serene bodies are paired together to cast a hypnotic spell on the viewer that ultimately compliment [sic] female essence."[13]
In the same year, Kuhn presented her first immersive installation piece, Experimental, a 5,000-square-foot exhibition at The Fruit in Durham, North Carolina.[14] Writer Julie M. Hamilton explains "In Experimental, Kuhn employs video projections, vinyl installation, and other mixed media to build her photos into an environment in which spectators can contemplate and deconstruct notions of the self. In this sense, the audience is the exhibit's subject, performing the work as a participant."[15] Kuhn explains that the immersive installation surrounds guests with sounds, images and projections that allow them to interact with her artwork, rather than simply observing it passively.[16] Her photography, featured in the installation, utilizes a desert landscape and light to symbolically portray human self-discovery in a natural environment. Kuhn's experimentation with reflections and light either reveals the interior of a subject or enshrouds them in shadow. By controlling the effects of light, Kuhn gives the appearance that her subjects are disappearing into the landscape.[16]
In 2021, Thames & Hudson published Mona Kuhn: Works, a retrospective of Kuhn's career spanning more than twenty years and named her "one of the most respected contemporary photographers of her time."[17] The volume includes previously unseen work and features images highlighting underlying themes from throughout Kuhn's career, namely her reflection on humanity's longing for spiritual connection and solidarity. Kuhn's photographs are accompanied with texts by Rebecca Morse, Chris Littlewood, Darius Himes and Simon Baker and an interview with Elizabeth Avedon, providing insights into Kuhn's creative process and the ways in which she works with her subjects and settings.[17]
In 2022, Kuhn debuted her series Kings Road as a multimedia and sound installation at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara.[18] Inspired by a love letter written by renowned midcentury architect Rudolph Schindler to an anonymous woman, the exhibition centered around Kuhn’s visual interpretation of the woman, photographed at the Schindler House on Kings Road in West Hollywood. Kuhn collaborated with composer Boris Salchow, who created an original score for the exhibition.[19] In 2023, Kunsthaus-Göttingen in Germany featured a large-scale exhibition curated by Gerhard Steidl, spanning three floors and comprising of multimedia pieces, solarized prints, artifacts from Schindler’s archive, and Kuhn’s own publications.[20] In 2024, Kuhn presented Between Modernism and Surrealism at Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York City, where solarized photographs from Kings Road were on view alongside artworks by Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, Dora Maar, Erwin Blumenfeld, and Bill Brandt.[21] In a review of the exhibition, writer Loring Knoblauch remarks, “What’s intriguing about these pairings is that Kuhn’s use of solarization is hardly ever truly surreal or deliberately jolting; instead she uses the technique to create a kind of lyrical mystery that fits the underlying narrative of the unknown woman in Schindler’s life. Kuhn envisages this figure as seductively ethereal, passing through Schindler’s house like a spirit and haunting his daydreams like an impressionistic hallucination. In this way, she’s redirected solarization in her own direction, infusing it with a fresh blast of energy and life.”[22]
Kuhn has been invited to curate exhibitions, most recently curating a show for The Billboard Creative, which placed works by emerging and established artists on billboards across Los Angeles.[27] She curated Under My Skin at Flowers Gallery in New York City in 2013 and juried (Un)Clothed at The Center for Fine Art Photography, also in 2013.[28][29]
