Mona Kuhn was born in São Paolo, Brazil in 1969, to parents of German descent. The family culture revolved around science and time spent in nature. Lively conversations and debates around a variety of subjects reflected their unconventional, multi-cultural perspectives that encouraged the young Mona to embrace the world and seek the commonalities that unite us.
In 1989, Mona Kuhn moved to the US and is currently an independent scholar at The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Occasionally, she teaches at UCLA and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
For over twenty years, Mona Kuhn has explored the universality of the human condition in relationship to nature through photography. Due to sustained looking and an unhurried sense of time that is absent from today, her work can be understood within early twentieth century photography as well as contemporary figure painting. Hers are not quick snapshots, but images made through deep relationships and time spent with her subjects within constructed spaces and the outdoors.
Raised as a multi-lingual citizen of the world with an unending curiosity in the creative process, Mona Kuhn’s high emotional intelligence affords intimate relationships that she skillfully transforms into sensitive images. Her figures commune with their surroundings, both man-made and natural, and are offset by sophisticated patterns and textures.
Highly personal, the work always returns to the nude: “Photographing someone in the nude is my attempt to reach that moment of perfect balance. 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.”