Heinrich Kuhn

Heinrich Kuhn, Astrid Mahler, Monika Faber

"German scientist and photographer Heinrich Kuhn (1866-1944) was one of the central figures in the establishment of international art photography at the turn of the twentieth century. Having studied botany and medicine, Kuhn made his first photograph in the late 1870s, dedicating himself solely to the medium within a decade. He achieved this dedication through the support of American photographers Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen and others. After a meeting in 1904, Stieglitz and Kuhn initiated an almost 30-year-long correspondence, ushering in an era of pioneering experimentation with autochrome and other photographic processes. Critical to Kuhn's success was an offset process he perfected, which allowed him to deliberately dissolve the sharpness of the image and alter its brightness. The results are gorgeous, dreamy images full of rich, delicate color. Around 1910, Kuhn reduced the...