For Study, Mona Kuhn returns to the darkroom for the very reason she fell in love with photography: the latent image. Inspired by the surrealist photographers of the 1920’s, she explores the ethereal quality of solarization. A visually distinct process through which the photographed subject seems underlined by the alchemist’s pencil, solarization is thought to be discovered by Lee Miller while printing for Man Ray, who ultimately took credit for the discovery. The method is as complex and uncertain as the human form itself; consequently the recipes from the past no longer work on present-day materials. Like the figure in her images, Kuhn sought to find her own balance, the results culminating in a series of unique prints that reveal layers of silver glow in the form of oxidized magic.
Kuhn’s experiments in crystallizing the latent image mirror the Kafkaesque existence of her subject. From a vulnerable and inquisitive sense of self to the confident posture of a man addressing the invisible masses, the perfectly contained to dematerialized silhouettes, the photographs emphasize an absurd nuance, teetering on the edge of reality and surreality.
TBW Books : Annual Series No. 7 | Four Book Set
Carmen Winant | Body Index
Juergen Teller | The Nipple
Mona Kuhn | Study
Paul Kooiker | Business Of Fashion
Hardcover
8.75 x 11 in.
ISBN: 978-1-942953-44-9
