Karsten Thormaehlen
Karsten Thormaehlen (born 28 July 1965) is a German photographer, editor and creative director. He currently lives in Wiesbaden. Family. Thormaehlen was born into a family with many influential personalities of Germany's 20th century art scene. His great-grandfather Emil Thormaehlen (1859–1941) was an architect and principal of the arts and crafts schools Magdeburg and Cologne. He was also co-founder of Deutscher Werkbund. One of his two sons, Ludwig Thormaehlen (1889–1956), was a Professor of Art History, a sculptor and between 1914 and 1933 a curator at the Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin. Among other artists he was  befriended with Edvard Munch and Erich Heckel, a member of the expressionist artist's group Brücke. His great-great aunt Alexe Altenkirch (1871–1943) was a painter and a graphic designer at Zanders Papers. She once had been photographed by August Sander for his famous series "People of the 20th Century". Life and work. Thormaehlen grew up in Bad Kreuznach and Bingen am Rhein. After a commercial apprenticeship and civilian service he studied Philosophy, Art History, Political science and Graphic Design in Mainz and Wiesbaden, where he graduated with honors in 1993. Between 1994 and 1998 he worked as an art  director and photographer for a German owner-managed advertising agency in New York City, where he developed advertising campaigns and directed TV-commercials. Thormaehlen's freelance portrait projects include "Jahrhundertmensch" (2008), "Happy at Hundred" (2011), "Aging Gracefully" (2017) and "Silver Heroes" (2009). They have been published as books and have been exhibited in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan. Thormaehlen's works "Erika E., born in 1910", and "Susannah M. Jones, at age 116", were chosen for the exhibitions by the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the 2011 and 2016 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prizes. His work has  been included in "The Guardian." He works as a commercial photographer, taking portraits. Since 2010, he has worked as an assistant professor, lecturer and guest speaker at various universities, academies and photo festivals, including the RheinMain University, the Academy of Visual Arts Frankfurt or Fürstenecker Fototage. In 2021 his first solo exhibition "Not Another Second" has been presented at the art gallery of "The Watermark at Brooklyn Heights" and will tour the country throughout 2021, with stops in Los Angeles, Napa, California and Tucson, Arizona.