Mona Kuhn- Nude Photographer
Biography: Mona Kuhn was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1969 but is of German descent. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California but spends her summers in France. She received her BA from Ohio State University, then going on to the San Francisco Art Institute in 1996, and afterwards went to The Getty Research Institute in LA in 1999.
- the photos that I chose were from her Black and White 1996-2002 portfolio.
Significance: Mona Kuhn has become internationally recognized for "her alluring renderings of the human form."
Composition: Kuhn does a great job with placement and focus when working with multiple people for a photograph. She frequently has photos with three people in them- one in focus and the other two not. The two people out of focus in these photographs always seem to be important to creating the scene or mood that Kuhn has set up. She also focuses on hands in many of her photos. Each of Kuhn's portfolios contains nature scenes that complement her portrait scenes. They show you the atmosphere of the location that the portraits were shot at.
Concept/Motivation: "Mona Kuhn's work is figurative. She is interested in redefining ways of looking at the body, as a residence to ourselves."- www.monakuhn.com
Method: Mona Kuhn is said to create works that are sensual but never overtly sexual. I think she does this with modesty in some of her photographs and taking the focus away from the nudity in others. It is not a raunchy sex scene or Picasso like. Her photos focus on appreciating the human form or capturing people's emotions/actions while they just happen to be naked. The people that she photographs are a part of her life, not models that she hires and this is reflected in her work. Some of her work seems to be something that she is just doing for herself. Her recent portfolio from Brazil was a personal journey for herself as she revisited the place of her youth and tried to capture pieces of the past (while ending up capturing things new to her).
My Opinion: I think that Kuhn has a knack for capturing people in a natural setting without it seeming forced or unnatural. You are able to focus in on the emotion of the scene because the nudity does not always overwhelm her photographs. I do not think that her photos do a great job of capturing her concept, but it still doesn't take away my ability to appreciate them. I think that she has great raw photos. They do not seem to have been digitally altered, or at least not to any great extent. I like her photos that seem more setup with an artistic focus on parts of the human form in comparison to some of her photos that have a larger focal area.
Biography: Mona Kuhn was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1969 but is of German descent. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California but spends her summers in France. She received her BA from Ohio State University, then going on to the San Francisco Art Institute in 1996, and afterwards went to The Getty Research Institute in LA in 1999.
- the photos that I chose were from her Black and White 1996-2002 portfolio.
Significance: Mona Kuhn has become internationally recognized for "her alluring renderings of the human form."
Composition: Kuhn does a great job with placement and focus when working with multiple people for a photograph. She frequently has photos with three people in them- one in focus and the other two not. The two people out of focus in these photographs always seem to be important to creating the scene or mood that Kuhn has set up. She also focuses on hands in many of her photos. Each of Kuhn's portfolios contains nature scenes that complement her portrait scenes. They show you the atmosphere of the location that the portraits were shot at.
Concept/Motivation: "Mona Kuhn's work is figurative. She is interested in redefining ways of looking at the body, as a residence to ourselves."- www.monakuhn.com
Method: Mona Kuhn is said to create works that are sensual but never overtly sexual. I think she does this with modesty in some of her photographs and taking the focus away from the nudity in others. It is not a raunchy sex scene or Picasso like. Her photos focus on appreciating the human form or capturing people's emotions/actions while they just happen to be naked. The people that she photographs are a part of her life, not models that she hires and this is reflected in her work. Some of her work seems to be something that she is just doing for herself. Her recent portfolio from Brazil was a personal journey for herself as she revisited the place of her youth and tried to capture pieces of the past (while ending up capturing things new to her).
My Opinion: I think that Kuhn has a knack for capturing people in a natural setting without it seeming forced or unnatural. You are able to focus in on the emotion of the scene because the nudity does not always overwhelm her photographs. I do not think that her photos do a great job of capturing her concept, but it still doesn't take away my ability to appreciate them. I think that she has great raw photos. They do not seem to have been digitally altered, or at least not to any great extent. I like her photos that seem more setup with an artistic focus on parts of the human form in comparison to some of her photos that have a larger focal area.
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