Mona Kuhn's beautiful series, She Disappeared into Complete Silence, shot in and around Joshua Tree National Forest in California, has now been collected into a beautiful book, published by acclaimed Steidl Books. With text by Salvador Nadales, curator of Painting and Drawing at Museo Reina Sofia, and at 103 pages, She Disappeared into Complete Silence captures body and nature in a unique way, ways that Kuhn has mastered and continues to display in elegant and almost, as the series suggest, eerily quiet beauty.
"She Disappeared into Complete Silence was photographed in a glass house where the golden light enters unobstructed. Conceptually speaking, this glass house with mirrored ceilings was an extension of my own camera and optics.
I was drawn to the desert because of its magical light and raw mystic landscape. The house itself is a minimal structure held mostly together by glass, built by architect Robert Stone. These translucent surfaces offered a great setting for reflections and at times worked as a prism for the light.
Together with a long time friend Jacintha, we experimented with reflections, shadows, illusions, and created images that push the boundaries of representation. I wanted to escape the body and photograph the human presence coming in and out of evidence, at times over exposed, at times hidden in shadows, like a desert mirage, a solitary figure who could have been the very first or last.
The title She Disappeared into Complete Silence was carefully chosen for multiple references. This series is a balance between the figure, abstraction and landscape. The word She has unfolding meanings. It refers not just to the single figure, but also the endless horizon lines running into infinity, and the lines rendered from thoughts." —Mona Kuhn
All images copyright and courtesy of Mona Kuhn for the purpose of promoting She Disappeared into Complete Silence
