Hugh Kretschmer grew up to a family of LA artists, discovering photography at the young age of 13. His father was a photo-instrumentation engineer for McDonnell Douglas and encouraged these early creative leanings. Kretschmer went on to graduate with honors from Art Center College of Design in 1984, started his own photography business in 1989, and properly joined the industry and widespread acclaim when he moved to New York in 1995. Since then his work for advertising and fine art has appeared in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Newsweek,and Time Magazine among others. He has also taken on ad campaigns for the likes of Toyota, Huggies, and Old Spice.
Kretschmer is currently based in LA where he teaches photography at UCLA and Los Angeles Center for Photography (LACP). His work can be seen in galleries worldwide and he serves as a board member of Artist United, a trustee of Behind the Lens, and a board member of MOPLA.
Kretschmer’s style is characterized by a hand-made, surrealist aesthetic that is whimsical with an at times dark edge. He doesn’t shy away from building his own sets and props by hand — utilizing aspects of collage or photomontage as well — to tell stories grounded in thought-provoking social commentary.
IN HIS OWN WORDS:
“I consider myself an illustrator and visual storyteller who happens to use a camera… My photographs have been described as fanciful, curious, imaginative, unusual, and a little creepy. They are influenced by myriad dreams and desires of what life could be, if only… “
