Carl Christian ''Heinrich'' Kühn (25 February 1866 in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

– 14 September 1944 in Birgitz) was an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n–

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

photographer and photography pioneer.

Overview

Heinrich Kühn is regarded one of the forefathers of

fine art photography Fine-art photography is photography created in line with the vision of the photographer as artist, using photography as a medium for creative expression. The goal of fine-art photography is to express an idea, a message, or an emotion. This stand ...

, the movement that helped

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

to establish itself as an art on its own. His photographs closely resemble

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

paintings, with their frequent use of soft lighting and focus. Kühn was part of the

pictorialist Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer ha ...

photographic movement. Kühn mainly used the

gum bichromate Gum printing is a way of making photographic reproductions without the use of silver halides. The process uses salts of dichromate in common with a number of other related processes such as sun printing. Gum prints tend to be multi-layered im ...

technique, applied in several layers, and thus allowing for previously unseen color tonalities. In 1911, Kühn invented the ''Gummigravüre'' technique, a combination of

photogravure Photogravure (in French ''héliogravure'') is a process for printing photographs, also sometimes used for reproductive intaglio printmaking. It is a photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is grained (adding a pattern to the plate) and ...

and

Gum bichromate Gum printing is a way of making photographic reproductions without the use of silver halides. The process uses salts of dichromate in common with a number of other related processes such as sun printing. Gum prints tend to be multi-layered im ...

. In 1915, he developed the ''Leimdruck'' technique, which uses

Animal glue Animal glue is an adhesive that is created by prolonged boiling of animal connective tissue in a process called Rendering (animal products), rendering. In addition to being used as an adhesive, it is used for coating and sizing, in decorative co ...

Colloid A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a liquid, while others exte ...

and produces pictures similar to gum prints. He also invented the ''Syngraphie'', a forgotten technique that uses two negatives of different sensitivity to obtain a larger tonal spectrum. Kühn used Autochrome from its appearance in 1907; his Autochromes have been called "ethereal dreams of childhood, full of vaulted sunny skies and giddy perspectives, as gloriously cathartic as they are emotionally charged". His photographs are also part of the Fotografis collection, which was presented at the beginning of 2009 in

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Literature

* Ulrich Knapp (Text): ''Heinrich Kühn Photographien''. Residenz Verlag, Salzburg 1988, . * ''The History of European Photography 1900-1938,'' FOTOFO, 2011. .

References

External links

Heinrich Kühn
at photography-now.com *
Heinrich Kühn
at ''Luminous-Lint''
Photographs by Heinrich Kühn in the Bildarchiv Austria
of the

Austrian National Library The Austrian National Library (, ) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Hofburg#Neue Burg, Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in Innere Stadt, center of Vienna. Sin ...

Fostinum: Photographs by Heinrich Kuehn
Austrian photographers Pioneers of photography 1866 births 1944 deaths Color photography Photographers from Dresden 19th-century German photographers German emigrants to Austria {{Germany-photographer-stub

Overview

See also

Literature

References

External links