Born in Brazil to German parents, Mona Kuhn began taking photographs when she was 12 years old. Working mainly on nudes, she often references classical themes in her large-scale studies of the human form. Kuhn's work offers a dream-like texture that is uniquely hers. She is also known as a curator and a scholar. Her first monograph on photography was published in 2004.

Kuhn talks about roots of her inspiration in the following way: "I like to think about photography as a way to create a visual poetry. I started my creative vocabulary with charcoal painting, much in the tradition of the German artist Kathe Kollwitz. She captured humanity in an unprecedented way, looking at her work to me was the same as looking into someone's soul. From her work I learned about the importance of human relationships. From charcoal, I quickly gravitated to black-and-white photography, as it allowed me to express myself faster, but I always kept in mind what has always been the most important aspect of my work: a timeless, suspended in time, relationship to ourselves. That is why I photograph the people in the nude, free of status symbols, honest, shameless and free."