Richard Kern

#RichardKern

Born in 1954, Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.

Lives in New York, USA.

Richard Kern, photographer and filmmaker remains, first and foremost, a portraitist. For more than two decades Kern has sought to unravel and illuminate the complex and often darker sides of human nature. Kern makes the psychological space between the sitter, photographer and audience his subject. With his dry, matter of fact approach, he underlines the absurdity of truth and objectivity in photography while playing with our reliance upon taxonomies around sexual representation.

Kern is a regular contributor to The Face, Dazed, Numero, Vice and Purple and has published 28 books. His films and photographs have been exhibited at MoMA, The Whitney Museum and in more than 50 solo shows around the world.

Selected biography (pdf)