Mona Kuhn

Focusing her lens on the naked human body Brazil-born photographer Mona Kuhn captures vulnerability in one of its most literal iterations. While her photographs engage a visual language rooted in classical figurative art, they also often exhibit a concern with narrative abstraction, redefining conventional ways of looking at the body. "I always feel that people are dressed in their own skin," she has said. Playing with ideas of naked versus nude, Kuhn's subjects often evoke a sculptural quality that still retains an unmistakable sensuality. For Kuhn, the nude is like "an art-historical costume you can't get away from. And if a nude is a costume, then naked would be a uniform." Focusing her lens on a broad range of nudes, including friends and family, Kuhn's photographs are markedly egalitarian. More recently, she has also courted the fashion world, translating subjects for commercial campaigns into her distinct vision.