Karsten Thormaehlen


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

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.

Photography

Thormaehlen's projects include portraying people over the age of 100 years and senior athletes. His work includes Jahrhundertmensch, Happy at Hundred, Aging Gracefully and Silver Heroes. They have been published as books and exhibited. His work has received awards from the Art Directors Club, Tokyo Type Directors Club, Cannes Lions, Clio Awards, D&AD, New York Festivals, Lucie Awards, and Portrait of Humanity. His works "Erika E., born in 1910", and "Susannah M. Jones, at age 116", were included in exhibitions at the National [Portrait Gallery (London)|National Portrait Gallery] in London as part of the 2011 and 2016 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prizes. His work has been included in The Atlantic, Buzz Feed, The Guardian, Harvard Business Review, The Japan Times, Kinfolk, The New York Times, and Smithsonian Magazine.
His series Silver Heroes inspired the World Health Organization to launch its first global campaign against agism in 2012. 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 was shown in 2021 and 2023 at the art galleries of The Watermark at Brooklyn Heights and The Watermark at Westwood Village.
Thormaehlen works as a commercial photographer, specialising in architecture, still life and portrait photography. He has also been an assistant professor and lecturer at various institutions.

Family

Thormaehlen's family members were involved in Germany's 20th century art scene. His great-grandfather Emil Thormaehlen 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, 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 friends with Edvard Munch, Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel, a member of the expressionist artist's group Brücke. His great-great aunt Alexe Altenkirch 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

Group exhibitions

Publications

  • Rome. Kempen, Germany: teNeues, 2004..
  • Jahrhundertmensch. Frankfurt am Main, 2008..
  • Happy at Hundred. Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2011..
  • Silver Heroes. Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2012..
  • Aging Gracefully. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2017..Not Another Second – LGBT+ Seniors Share Their Stories, ed. by Ines Newby and June Hussey, Tucson, Arizona: Watermark Retirement Communities, 2021. ..
  • Young at Heart, ed. by Christine von Arnim, Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2021..
  • 100 Jahre Lebensglück. Munich: Knesebeck, 2025..

Awards