Working with a selective focus, Mona Kuhn creates dreamlike images.
Oftentimes they are out-of-focus photographs of people, rapt, as if it were
a different world from the one we perceive when awake. Pictures of the soul.
At the very least, they awaken the desire to be one with oneself and nature.
The philosophy of classical antiquity knew only one word for nature and the
essence of the human being. Even today we speak of human nature and we
long for our true nature. Perhaps this is what drives us all throughout life,
makes us change professions and partners until we live according to our
true nature. Perhaps this is what fills us with a sense of discomfort about our
mechanized western society marked by rationality. This might be what drives
people to the beaches of southern France to vacation in the nude. Mona Kuhn
has photographed people there and captured their desire to live in unison with
their own true nature. So far she has taken black and white as well as color
pictures of more than 50 people in France.
Although a number of them do not want to have their pictures displayed in an exhibit
or published in a book. „They are very shy,” Mona Kuhn explains.
However, that might change. „After a few years they give consent to the publication.
” The work is a continuous process. She says that in France, friends whose pictures
she has already taken will recommend her to their friends and cousins. And in this way
she creates again and again new studies of the shapes of human bodies in black and
white or the dream-like images in color. The first kiss of a couple for instance, getting
back together after a crisis. One can see only their silhouette, seated on the sofa in a
vacation home, flowers on a table nearby. Relief spreads internally, salvation. As if at
the moment of waking up, with the images of the night, the last dream, taking shape in
one’s imagination and the thought: Oh my goodness, fortunately it was only a dream.
A dream that only arises in the eye of the beholder fading away from the couple out of focus.
It’s this distance to the soul of the people photographed that makes the difference between
the images of Mona Kuhn and Jock Sturges who likes to portrait nudists at the beach of
Montalivet as well. Sturges photographs are somehow dealing with the same subjects as
Mona Kuhns and they inspired here. But Jock Sturges is interested in revealing something
from the inside of his models and himself, in revealing the relationship between the
photographer and the boys and girls, the men and women photographed in a nature
surrounding. In the images of the californian artist nature is a very present symbol as
Kuhns art is about cultural questions.
Mona Kuhn was born in 1969 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the daughter of German parents.
She studied at Ohio State University in the United States. In 2004 she published her
book of photographs “Photographs” followed by “Evidence” in 2007. In fall of 2009,
Steidl will publish the book “Native“with pictures from Brazil. Monika Kuhn is represented
by six galleries in the United States and in Europe.
Translation by Inge Meinzner
all images © Mona Cuhn
