Photography Mona Kuhn

Information

Mona Kuhn is best known for her large-scale, dream-like photographs of nudes. She has described her work as redefining ways of looking at the body, her nudes often reference classical themes with a light and insightful touch. Kuhn’s approach to her photography is unusual in that she usually develops close relationships with her subjects, resulting in images of remarkable naturalness and intimacy, and creating the effect of people naked but comfortable in their own skin.

Kuhn was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1969, of German descent. She received her BA from The Ohio State University, before furthering her studies at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1996. She is currently an independent scholar at The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.

Kuhn’s first monograph, Photographs, was debut by Steidl in 2004; immediately followed by Evidence (2007), Native (2010), and Bordeaux Series (2011). Mona's upcoming book is titled Private (release early 2014).

Mona Kuhn's work has been exhibited and/or included in the collections of The J.Paul Getty Museum, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Photographic Art in San Diego, The George Eastman House International Museum of Art in Rochester, 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 in NYC. In Europe, her work has been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art in London England, Deichtorhallen in Hamburg Germany, Musée de l'Élysée in Switzerland, Centre d'art Contemporain at Musée Chaleroi in France, the Leopold Museum in Vienna Austria, and the Australian Center for Photography in Sydney. Currently, Mona lives and works in Los Angeles.