Based in Los Angeles, Mona Kuhn is acclaimed for her contemporary and intimate depictions of the nude. In Acido Dorado: Illusions, she takes the human form in a new direction by blurring the demarcation between figure and abstraction. Here, Kuhn shifts focus to integrate completely the female nude as another element of her raw material merged with light, shadow, and architecture, to create an intimate, mirage-like vignette.
Acido Dorado: Illusions was photographed at architect Robert Stone's secluded glass house located in California's Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree. Inspired by the early autumn light and elongated shadows in the desert at the beginning and the end of the day, the resulting prints are imbued with a fluid, dreamy palette of yellow, gold and blue. Kuhn's collaboration with The Lapis Press introduced her to a process that ultimately gave the images a radiance that complements the shimmering, reflective quality of the images.
"Acido Dorado: Illusions is from an abstracted series, where I blended landscape, figure and architectural lines into one plane of reflective surface. I photographed inside a glass house in the middle of the desert, where the light and reflections would mirror all over its surface."
- Mona Kuhn