Mona Kuhn

AD 7565, 2014From the series ‘Acido Dorado ’

Mona Kuhn Biography Mona Kuhn's photography is characterized by large-scale photographs of the human body, which are often intimate and natural. American photographer Mona Kuhn (1969-present) is known for her large-scale photos of the nude human form. Mona Kuhn's photographs draw inspiration for her work both from classical art and the desire to examine — and sometimes transform — how society views the natural human body. Much of Mona Kuhn’s photography focuses on capturing people feeling comfortable in their own skin, while still exuding a sense of dreamy beauty. Mona Kuhn is known for developing close relationships with her subjects and making them feel at ease in her presence, resulting in a unique type of playful intimacy in Mona Kuhn’s photography. The deep connections Mona Kuhn cultivates with her models not only lend a physical closeness to her work, but a sense of the emotional connections she has developed as well. Indeed, many of Mona Kuhn's photographs manage to somehow be both whimsical and sensual at once. Mona Kuhn once remarked, 'I always feel that people are dressed in their own skin,” and her photography features a wide array of subjects — including friends and family members — in their most natural states. “[The nude] is an art-historical costume you can't get away from,” the artist said. “And if nude is a costume, then naked would be a uniform.' Mona Kuhn was born to German parents in São Paulo, Brazil, and moved to the United States in 1989 to earn her Bachelor’s degree from the Ohio State University. In 1996, she continued her studies at The San Francisco Art Institute; she currently works as an independent scholar at The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. She also occasionally teaches at University of California, Los Angeles and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Mona Kuhn’s monographs include Photographs (2004), Evidence (2007), Native (2010), Bordeaux (2011), Private (2014), and She Disappeared into Complete Silence (2018), all published by Steidl. Mona Kuhn’s photography is included in the collections of The J.Paul Getty Museum, The Louvre Museum in France, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Pérez Art Museum in Miami, The Museum of Photographic Art in San Diego, The George Eastman House, the Griffin Museum in Boston, Miami Museum of Art, the Cincinnati Art Museum, North Carolina Museum of Art, Georgia Museum of Art, The International Center of Photography and the Sir Elton John Collection. In Europe, Mona Kuhn’s photography has been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art in London, England; Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany; Musée de l'Élysée in Switzerland; the Leopold Museum in Vienna, Austria and the Australian Center for Photography in Sydney.