Karsten Thormaehlen

Karsten Thormaehlen
Thormaehlen in Ötztal, Tyrol, Austria, 2015
Born	Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, West Germany (now Germany)
Education	Fachhochschule Wiesbaden (now RheinMain University of Applied Sciences), 1988–1993, Wiesbaden, Germany
Occupation(s)	portrait photographer, still life photographer, Creative director
Years active	1985–present
Known for	Portraits of Centenarians
Style	Purism, beauty of aging, Documentary photography
Spouse(s)	Michaela Thormaehlen (2000–present)
Website	www.karstenthormaehlen.com

Karsten Thormaehlen is a German photographer, editor and creative director. He lives and works in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Early life and education

Thormaehlen grew up in Bad Kreuznach and Bingen am Rhein, Germany. 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. ^[1]

Photography

Thormaehlen's projects include portraying people over the age of 100 years and senior athletes. His work includes Jahrhundertmensch (2008), ^[2] Happy at Hundred (2011), ^[3] Aging Gracefully (2017) ^[4] and Silver Heroes (2009). ^[5] They have been published as books and exhibited. His work has received awards from the Art Directors Club, ^[6] Tokyo Type Directors Club, Cannes Lions, Clio Awards, D&AD, New York Festivals, Lucie Awards, ^[7] and Portrait of Humanity.^{[ citation needed ]} His works "Erika E., born in 1910", and "Susannah M. Jones, at age 116", were included in exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the 2011 and 2016 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prizes. ^[8] His work has been included in The Atlantic , ^[9] Buzz Feed , ^[10] The Guardian , ^[11] Harvard Business Review , ^[12] The Japan Times , ^[13] Kinfolk , ^[14] The New York Times , ^[15] and Smithsonian Magazine . ^[16]

His series Silver Heroes inspired the World Health Organization to launch its first global campaign against agism in 2012. ^[17] In 2021, portraits from his series Aging Gracefully were displayed as part of the London Design Museum's exhibition New Old – Designing for our future selves at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery in New York City and his first solo exhibition Not Another Second ^{[18] [19] [20]} was shown in 2021 and 2023 at the art galleries of The Watermark at Brooklyn Heights and The Watermark at Westwood Village. ^[21]

Thormaehlen works as a commercial photographer, specialising in architecture, ^[22] still life ^[23] and portrait photography. He has also been an assistant professor and lecturer at various institutions. ^[24]

Family

Thormaehlen's family members were involved in 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. ^[25] 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. ^[26] Among other artists he was friends with Edvard Munch, Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel, a member of the expressionist artist's group Brücke. ^[27] His great-great aunt Alexe Altenkirch ^[28] (1871–1943) was a painter and graphic designer at Zanders Papers. She had been photographed by August Sander for his series People of the 20th Century.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

• 2009: Karsten Thormaehlen: Silver Heroes, Frankfurt City Public Health Department, Frankfurt am Main, Germany ^[29]
• 2010: Karsten Thormaehlen: Jahrhundertmensch, Zollamtsaal, Haus am Dom, Frankfurt am Main, Germany ^[30]
• 2014: Karsten Thormaehlen: Pioniere der Zukunft, University of Zurich, Zurich-Schlieren, Switzerland ^[31]
• 2014: Karsten Thormaehlen: Aktiv in die Zukunft, DOSB Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund, Dominikanerkloster, Frankfurt am Main, Germany ^[32]
• 2015: Karsten Thormaehlen: Happy at Hundred, Toranomon Hills, Tokyo, Japan, 16–18 April 2015 ^[33]
• 2021: Karsten Thormaehlen: Not Another Second,The Watermark at Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York, January 2021 ^{[34] [35]}
• 2023: Karsten Thormaehlen: Not Another Second, The Watermark at Westwood Village, Los Angeles, California, January 2023 ^[36]

Group exhibitions

• 2004: Im Rausch der Dinge, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland ^[37]
• 2005: The Nature of Skin, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Barlach Halle K, Hamburg, Germany ^[38]
• 2011: Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, London ^[39]
• 2016: Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, London ^[40]
• 2018: Pink is the New Grey, Weltkulturenmuseum, Frankfurt, Germany ^[41]

Publications

• Rome. Kempen, Germany: teNeues, 2004. ISBN   978-3-8238-4578-2.
• Jahrhundertmensch. Frankfurt am Main, 2008. ISBN   978-3-00-025096-5.
• Happy at Hundred. Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2011. ISBN   978-3-86-828243-6.
• Silver Heroes. Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2012. ISBN   978-3-86-828303-7.
• Aging Gracefully. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2017. ISBN   978-1-45-214533-4. ^{[42] [43] [44]}
• Not Another Second – LGBT+ Seniors Share Their Stories, ed. by Ines Newby and June Hussey, Tucson, Arizona: Watermark Retirement Communities, 2021. ISBN   978-0-5788-0580-1..
• Young at Heart, ed. by Christine von Arnim, Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2021. ISBN   978-3-96999-029-2.
• 100 Jahre Lebensglück. Munich: Knesebeck, 2025. ISBN   978-3-95728-990-2. ^[45]

Awards

• 2013: Nominated, Deutscher Alterspreis ^[46]
• 2015: Silver winner, Clio Awards, Public Service, Print category, for a photograph from his centenarians series used in advertising New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation / Skinfoods ^[47]
• 2016: Design and Art Direction (D&AD) London ^[48]
• 2016: Shortlisted, Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, London, for a photograph from his centenarians series ^[40]
• 2017: Bronze in Portraiture/Personality, Px3 Prix de la Photographie Paris, for a photograph from his centenarians series ^[49]
• 2021: Shortlisted, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Health and Wellness category ^{[50] [51]}

References

1. "Freier Fotograf Karsten Thormaehlen". berufsfotografen.com. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
2. "Jahrhundertmensch – Ausstellung mit Tiefencharakter". Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (bpb). Retrieved 4 July 2013.
3. "Joyful Portraits of Centenarians That Are Happy at One Hundred". My Modern Met. 10 January 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
4. "Aging Gracefully: Portraits of People over 100 by".
5. "Who needs a bus pass? Meet the silver sportsmen and women still going for gold..." Independent.co.uk . 13 April 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
6. "ADC Annual Awards - Archive of Winners | The One ClubADC Awards | Awards Archive | 2017 | Design | Posters". www.oneclub.org.
7. Brauer, Laura (28 October 2015). "The Lucie Awards Recap: International Photographer of the Year Has a Tie, and Presentations by Ann Curry, Graham Nash and Fran Drescher". Rangefinder.
8. "Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize 2016 – in pictures". the Guardian. 16 November 2016 – via www.theguardian.com.
9. Stanley, Caroline (2 April 2013). "What 100 Years Look Like". The Atlantic .
10. Rosa, Erin La (5 April 2013). "Here's What Happiness Looks Like At 100 Years Old". BuzzFeed.
11. "The 100-year-old couple – still married, still going strong". The Guardian. 11 February 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
12. Dychtwald, Ken; Fulmer, Terry; Morison, Robert; Terveer, Katy (1 July 2025). "Your Company Needs an Eldercare Policy". Harvard Business Review– via hbr.org.
13. Otake, Tomoko (12 May 2025). "What comes after 100?". The Japan Times.
14. "Kinfolk Volume 10 (Paperback)". Goodreads.
15. "The Stories of Those Who Lost Decades in the Closet (Published 2021)". The New York Times . 20 January 2021.
16. "What is So Good About Growing Old". Smithsonian Magazine.
17. https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/70840/WHO_DCO_WHD_2012.1_eng.pdf;jsessionid=B29876565E17C7282A4AD6ABDFD370A6?sequence=1
18. "'I refused to let them intimidate me': the untold stories of LGBT+ seniors". TheGuardian.com . 27 January 2021. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
19. Schulman, Michael (1 March 2021). "Tallying the Lost Years for L.G.B.T. Seniors". The New Yorker– via www.newyorker.com.
20. "This Brooklyn Exhibit Displays the Stories of LGBTQ+ Seniors". 19 January 2021.
21. Dambrot, Shana Nys (26 January 2023). "Ever-Changing World: Arts Calendar January 26 - February 1 - LA Weekly".
22. "Karsten Thormaehlen". 20 March 2024.
23. "Fotograf: Karsten Thormaehlen". Gerda Spillmann Swiss Cosmetics Deutschland GmbH. 14 October 2015.
24. "Lehrreiche Blicke hinter die Kulissen". Frankfurter Rundschau. 3 February 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
25. "Prof. Emil Thormählen". Universität Magdeburg. Retrieved 1 March 2005.
26. "Der Kunsthistoriker Ludwig Thormaehlen (The Art Historian Ludwig Thormaehlen) :: Nationalgalerie :: museum-digital:staatliche museen zu berlin". smb.museum-digital.de.
27. "Prof. Ludwig Thormaehlen". Zeit Online. 17 May 1956. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
28. "Alexe Altenkirch". Frauengeschichtsverein. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
29. "Karsten Thormaehlen: Silver Heroes". fokussiert.com. Retrieved 12 November 2009.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
30. "Karsten Thormaehlen: Jahrhundertmensch". artslant magazine. Retrieved 1 June 2010.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
31. "Pioniere der Zukunft - Glücklich altern auf Sardinien". Photography-now.com. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
32. "Aktiv in die Zukunft". DOSB. Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
33. "Karsten Thormaehlen: Happy at Hundred". Metropolis Japan. Retrieved 16 April 2015.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
34. "The Stories of Those Who Lost Decades in the Closet". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
35. "Not Another Second". Time Out New York. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
36. "Watermark showcases LGBTQ+ seniors in photo exhibit". Beverly Press. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
37. "Im Rausch der Dinge - Vom funktionalen Objekt zum Fetisch in Fotografien des 20. Jahrhunderts". Fotostiftung Schweiz. Retrieved 4 September 2004.
38. "Exhibitions & Events". Kunsthaus Hamburg. Retrieved 4 September 2004.
39. "Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 Exhibition". Ephotozine. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
40. "Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize – in pictures". The Guardian. 16 November 2016. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
41. "Frankfurter Weltkulturen Museum sucht Exponate zum Thema Alter". Monopol. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
42. Maddie Crum, The Huffington Post, on Thormaehlen's book Aging Gracefully – Portraits of People Over 100 (Chronicle Books, San Francisco 2017)
43. What Aging Gracefully Looks Like After 100, Tori Latham, New York Magazine
44. "Brilliant photo series celebrates the beauty of ageing". 5 April 2017.
45. "100 Jahre Lebensglück: Beeindruckende Biografien voller Kraft und Weisheit – Bewegende Erinnerungen und inspirierende Lebensgeschichten von Hundertjährigen | Knesebeck Verlag". www.knesebeck-verlag.de.
46. "Diese alten Athleten brechen Rekorde!". Bild.de. 22 October 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
47. "New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation & Skinfoods - A cream that gives you wrinkles". Clio Awards. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
48. "A Cream That Gives You Wrinkles". D&AD.org. Retrieved 16 November 2016.^{[ dead link ]}
49. "1899". px3.fr. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
50. "Breast Cream That Gives You Wrinkles". theinspirationroom.com. 6 October 2015. Archived from the original on 6 October 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
51. "Cannes Lions 2021: Health and Wellness and Pharma Lions shortlist released". 19 June 2021.

External links

• Media related to Karsten Thormaehlen at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website