Heinrich Kühn was born in Dresden in 1866. At twenty he began the study of medicine in Leipzig, and continued it in Berlin and Freiburg. One of his interests was experimenting with microscopic photography. Thanks to financial support from his well-to-do parents, in 1888 he began to devote himself to photography in Innsbruck and ultimately broke off his studies. Around 1890 Kühn became a member of the Viennese Camera Club, the Hamburg Society for the Promotion of Amateur Photography and the Linked Ring for Amateur Photography. He first showed his work in an exhibition of photography in 1894, and in 1898 he was represented at the Munich Secession’s international photography exhibition. Beginning in 1904 he was in regular correspondence with Alfred Stieglitz, who showed Kühn’s works in an exhibition in America two years later. After his wife died in 1905 Kühn cut back his artistic activity in order to take care of his four children. In 1910 he lost his fortune and was obliged to live from his work. His attempt to found a photography school failed. Kühn wrote articles for professional journals and documented scientific and technical photographic experiments. In 1919 he moved to a country house in Birgitz, where he died in 1944.
