.ABOUT KK

KERSTIN KUNTZE

LEICA & KK°
FEATURE

Kerstin Kuntze Leica Unterwasserfotografie

Kerstin Kuntzes work is a generous display of intense feelings,

expressions and above all PASSION. Her artwork is featured in leading magazines and exhibitions worldwide. She's a professional artist who

works & swims nearby Frankfurt | Germany.

KK about WASSERLUST | SWIMPOPLOVE°

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Water is my beloved.

He makes me happy.

• • • • • • • • • • • •

“Kerstin Kuntze has discovered the medium of water for photography in a very special and unique way. She creates impressive motifs with a density and power that are rarely seen.”
© V. Marschall

Kerstin Kuntze • born April 5, 1965 in Cologne • studied Communication Design at the Folkwang University of the Arts • Art Director in advertising agencies in Essen, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main • freelance artist since 2000 • numerous exhibitions in galleries and museums, also internationally • photo festivals from Miami to Seoul • featured in magazines from Norway to India • private collectors also in Silver Spring and Taipei • lives with her family on the outskirts of Frankfurt

THE LEICA CAMERA BLOG

".. German photographer Kerstin Kuntze is literally in her element shooting underwater images, which she describes as an expression of life itself. Kerstin feels at home in the water and her years of experience have given her an instinctive understanding of how to capture light and movement underwater. Her background as a graphic illustrator and designer has also seen her develop an inimitable photo-editing technique. Working with a pen in hand at her tablet, she has managed to retain an analog aspect within her digital process. The images she creates communicate wonderfully the sensory joy of entering this subaqueous world. .."
©Pete Littlewood

kerstin kuntze

1965 in Köln geboren, mit drei jüngeren Geschwistern in Meerbusch aufgewachsen

1986 - 1988 Abitur, anschließend Grafik-Volontariat in Werbeagenturen | Düsseldorf | Essen

1988 Zeichnerische Ausbildung im Atelier von A. Santa Maria | Meerbusch

1989 – 1995 Studium Kommunikationsdesign | Folkwang Hochschule der Künste,

prägend Prof. Otto Näscher „ .. lustvoll der eigenen Entwicklung zuarbeiten“ & Prof. Vilim Vasata

1991 Abschluß als Diplom-Designerin | mit Auszeichnung

1985 – 1999 Art-Director in int. Werbeagenturen in Düsseldorf | Essen | Frankfurt am Main

Seit 2000 Freie Künstlerin | arbeitet und schwimmt am Frankfurter Feldrand

Man findet sie unter Wasser oder hier:

Find me underwater or here:

1965 born in Cologne, raised with three younger siblings in Meerbusch | Germany

1986 - 1988 Graphic traineeship in advertising agencies | Düsseldorf | Essen

1988 Graphic training with A. Santa Maria | Meerbusch

1989 – 1995 Folkwang University of Fine Arts | Prof. Otto Näscher & Prof. Vilim Vasata | Essen

1991 Master of Fine Arts | Predicate exam

1985 – 1999 Art-Director in int. advertising agencies in Düsseldorf | Essen | Frankfurt am Main

since 2000 Professional Artist | works and swims on the edge of Frankfurt

exhibitions

Aug./Sept. 2025 100 Jahre Leica „Der besondere Augenblick“ LEICA Gallery | Düsseldorf

2016-2025 SWIMPOPLOVE° Großformate im Seedammbad | Bad Homburg v.d.H.

March 2024 „Dåedtjies johke“ Galleri Korn | Stockholm/Sweden

March-Oct. 2022 „SPLASH“ Galerie KUNST SCHAEFER | Wiesbaden

Oct./Nov. 2021 5th PYEONGTAEK INTERNATIONAL PHOTO FESTIVAL | Pyeongtaekho Arts Center/KOREA
Nov. 2020 „Tree of Life“ R Photography Art Museum & ICICLE GALLERY | Shanghai/CHINA

Aug. - Oct. 2020 WASSERLUST° Photo Gallery NOIR BLANCHE | Düsseldorf

May 2020 7th KOREA INTERNATIONAL PHOTO FESTIVAL | HANGARAM ART MUSEUM Seoul

Dec. 2019 - Dec. 2020 „SIEG DER STILLE“ SYMPRA & Schacher RAUM FÜR KUNST | Stuttgart

May 2019 6th KOREA INTERNATIONAL PHOTO FESTIVAL | HANGARAM ART MUSEUM Seoul

June/July 2018 신통방통 사진 Marvelous & Wonderful | Gallery Wa(瓦) Yangpyeong/Gyeonggi-do Province

Feb./March 2018 International Photosalon Galeria UAP Mantu | Galati/Romania

July 2017 „Happy Rebellion of Photography“ Ggoomteul Gallery | Pohang/Korea

July/Aug. 2017 „WASSER“ Galerienhaus Stuttgart | RfK Marko Schacher | Kurator P. Franck

May 2017 4th Korea Photofestival, Rebellion of Photo° ARTMuseum | Seoul/KOREA

Nov. 2015 Wix SEEME x SCOPE Art Fair - 801 Ocean Drive Miami Beach/Florida

Nov. 2015 Charity Exhibition Artauction | Städtisches Museum Schloss Rheydt

August 2015 Ikarus° The Exposure Award | Musee du Louvre | Paris

Feb./March 2015 Kerstin Kuntzes‘ Wasserlust° Gallery Phoenix | Köln

Nov. 2014 Gallery Lukas Bär | Winterthur/Schweiz - "20x20"

Aug.- Oct. 2014 „Gold“ | Citymuseum Schwabach

June 2012 Gallery Naumann „Components“ | St. Pölten/Österreich

. . .

Representation

R Photography Art Museum
Hongyan East Road, Chaoyang District,
Beijing, 100010, P.R.China

magazines

Okt. 2022 LFI Leica Fotografie International Magazin | Okt./Nov. 2020 SWIM Magazin | Juni 2020 STREK Magazine, Cover + 7 pages /Norwegen | Dez. 2019 BROAD Magazine #1, 10 pages OTHERLAND°/Kanada | July 2019 Feature in URBANE Magazine /India | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 STERN VIEW | Jan./Feb. 2018 Cover Pulstreiber Magazine | Edition 2/2017 MillionArt, International Artmagazine | 2014 Pictures - 10 pages Wasserlust° | Okt. 2016 International Photomagazine: Visions Libres Provocateur | and many more . . .

books

2012-2023 12 Kuntze-Calendar - Calvendo Verlag

2020 Exhibition catalogue „Wasserlust“ | Gallerie noir blanche

2014 „Was Fotografen bewegt“ dpunkt Verlag

web

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WASSERLUST | SWIMPOPLOVE °

In this artistic series, water serves as the reflective medium of life. This body of work not only unveils the profound connection between humanity and nature but also mirrors my personal affinity with water—a lifelong source of joy. As a daily ritual, I dedicate around two hours to swimming, immersing myself in the timeless force that both envelops and fulfills me. One need not be a swimmer to immerse themselves in this realm—simply receive, feel, and contemplate.
WELCOME TO OTHERLAND!

.already as a child happiest in the water

Almost every day I swim 3 km, always under the open sky, even in the harshest winter. Often with a waterproof Leica – this enables the transfer from experience to image. Beyond representation, water becomes a metaphor for the states of being. Often the subjects are unspectacular, such as exhaling underwater. What seems insignificant reveals the beauty of life in the image.

I love what I show. I find light in every human being and in the smallest bubble of breath. After countless liquid embraces, my wet lover still surprises me with new perspectives. In 2012 I bought my first waterproof camera – this was the beginning of the cycle WASSERLUST | SWIMPOPLOVE°. Here, my art unites with my irrepressible joy of swimming. Passion is my wave that moves everything. Every day it drives me into the waters and nourishes my desire to create new images. Art is something profoundly personal and always reflects the one who gives it form. What images can one expect from a woman who, even as a child, was happiest in the water?

.about the devotion to icecold water

I have loved swimming in ice-cold water for many years. With my images, I want to find beauty in the seemingly unbearable. To move almost naked in open water at temperatures below 10°C is an extreme act. The body’s own substances released in this process create a powerful, incomparable intoxication. An extreme sensual experience in water and on land. Alive in the water, miserable while warming up, when cold blood flows through the heart. Along with the awareness that water can be vital, supportive, and deadly at the same time – my source for new images.

.and most of all it's about passion

Picture making has always been an internal compulsion; my first urges began as a child,

“I was always drawing” - these impulses continuing through to the present.

Today, I create utilizing photography melded with graphic infusion. My search for the core of human being drives me. My artwork displays a wide range of emotions embodying colors from darkest black to fieriest red. I sincerely desire that these mirrors of my passion and the intensities of my emotion will touch you in a personal way.

Ulf Fågelhammar about kk

Her work is a generous display of feelings, expressions and above all passion. It doesn't matter if she is beside, over, under, in front of or in between - it seems that she always finds a visual landscape that goes along with her intentions. I can see her influences from graphic art, but there is really no reason to try to make some in-depth analysis of her work - Kerstin Kuntze's pictures speak to me in a very direct way - they tell me: just receive, feel and contemplate.

kerstin kuntze kunst

The urge to create has always been there. As a girl, I painted everything: the walls, the bicycle, the shoes, the paper, even my skin. Every school desk was perfectly polar white—except mine. Expansive worlds, at first neatly drawn in pencil, then made permanent with marker. Art was the most important subject, and even as a little girl I knew that I would never stop creating.

Art is something profoundly personal and always reflects the one who gives it form.

I am a passionate creator, I burn for what I do. Pictures are my language. I wanted to study art or graphic design.

At the renowned Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, I was able to combine both. To this day, I am deeply grateful for the education I received there.

The great draftsman Professor Otto Näscher and advertising icon Professor Vilim Vasata became my most important mentors. As my tutors, they stood closely by my side.

Every graphic designer had to learn the basics of photography. For me at the time, it was both duty and play—I was a draftsman. Today I am very glad to know these foundations, from lectures on the history of photography to working in the darkroom.

But most formative was a sentence from Otto Näscher: “Joyfully work on your own development.” That was always mine. Joy and passion are the impetus for my art.

After the early death of my father, I had to finance my studies on my own. I worked in advertising as an illustrator and graphic assistant. After graduating as a Diplom Designer with distinction, I continued on that path. In large advertising agencies I worked as an Art Director, learning much about concept development and collaborating with outstanding colleagues. Frustrating, however, were the often agonizing decision-making processes. More than once a good idea was watered down into a lukewarm campaign. Back then, I longed to decide autonomously again, both on the idea and its realization. To finally work freely once more.

Fortunately, I became pregnant. I knew I would never again work in advertising. That chapter was over. Anything else would have been only repetition.

I wanted to work from home—to be both mother and artist. Three wild and wonderful children by day, and art by night. Children and art grew together. Today, the days have joined the nights, giving me more time to devote to my art and commissions. A life just as I always wished for.

With my children came digital photography into my life. We understood each other right away. It reminded me of my father and his Polaroid camera. How often I borrowed it, just to enjoy that instant feeling of the creative act. Suddenly, making an image of the world became so easy. Digital images cry out for editing, to transform representation into something unique. Something that can move, stir, and sometimes even unsettle others. As an artist, one must master the tools of creation—so I continue learning every day. Programs like Photoshop and Lightroom offer infinite possibilities that are there to be conquered. I am still a draftsman at heart … working with a pen on my graphic tablet. Sometimes I still draw by hand in sketchbooks.

I love experimenting; it opens new paths of image-making. Reinventing oneself, taking new directions, and experimenting with joy—that is what I seek. Creation and destruction, lust and suffering, often lie very close together.

This is work, and not always a pleasure. Not a day goes by without me laboring over at least one image. As I said at the beginning: one cannot choose it. It is a constant drive and, of course, also a great joy to create something new.

Form and content depend on one another, just as artist and art, life and work.

My subject is always the human condition. The expression of life, desire, passion, longing, and the full spectrum of emotions, from radiant red to deepest black, manifests in my art.

For a long time, water has been the defining theme of my work. The series WASSERLUST° / SWIMPOPLOVE° speaks of the pleasure of losing oneself. As a passionate swimmer, I am in the water almost every day. In 2012, the series WASSERLUST° emerged almost inevitably, combining profession with passion. I always swim outdoors, preferably in open water.

In 2016, I discovered my enthusiasm for cold water—now I can swim in half-frozen lakes in January at below 1°C. A sensational feeling, addictive and inspiring new images. What I love about swimming is the power of water on my skin—an elemental force that lets one feel life in its full intensity. Images are created that mirror life—from gently tender to brutally forceful. They are meant to move, touch, and overwhelm—just as water touches me.

Often the subjects are quite unspectacular, like exhaling underwater. Yet capturing a single moment can make this act something sensational. Perhaps this is what I love most—the magic of small moments. The infinity a moment can hold. Timelessness. All my works are united by the depiction of the states of being. And in the future, I look forward to seeing and being seen.

Rubbing my lust for life into your eyes.