Kahmann Gallery presents Stars to the Sun, the solo exhibition of Pieter Henket (NL, 1979).

Henket moved to the United States in 1998, where he studied Documentary Film at the New York Film Academy. After working for the renowned director Joel Schumacher, his fascination for capturing a story in a single shot pulled him towards photography instead of filmmaking. As a self-taught photographer, he is known for his alluring portraits of some the biggest stars in the world, both for his commercial work as well as in his personal, autonomous projects. It is his careful lighting and staging, with strong cinematographic characteristics, which define his signature. With his portraits, Henket manages to capture the very essence of the individual. His strengths lie beyond portraiture however, as his book Stars to the Sun shows. Here, portraits of the visitors of the Carnaval de Rio are mixed with scenes of the festival and stunning shots of Argentinean nature.

Stars to the Sun shows us a different aspect of Henket as an artist. For this series, Henket travelled to the Carnaval de Rio, a thrilling spectacle of dance and people, taking place every year in San Luis, a city in the mountains of Argentina. The resulting works are a mixture of imposing landscapes, electrifying scenes of the carnaval and intimate portraits of the visitors of the festival, shot in a small tent in the midst of the festivities. All of these combined capture the soul of the festival and the essence of being human: being able to connect with each other and celebrate life.

Henket has worked for magazines such as The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire. His work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and in 2013 he was honored with a major solo-exhibition at Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle. His work has been included in numerous private and museum collections around the world.