Sven Kirsten

Sven Kirsten was born in the the German port town of Hamburg in 1955. He emigrated to California in 1980 to study at the San Francisco Art Institute and the American Film Institute. It was this love for visuals that inspired Sven to collect and photograph the remnants of the forgotten culture of Polynesian pop in America, leading him to identify the Tiki as its icon. His three books on the subject put Tiki firmly on the map of American pop culture, and are regarded as the standard works on the...See more

Sven Kirsten was born in the the German port town of Hamburg in 1955. He emigrated to California in 1980 to study at the San Francisco Art Institute and the American Film Institute. It was this love for visuals that inspired Sven to collect and photograph the remnants of the forgotten culture of Polynesian pop in America, leading him to identify the Tiki as its icon. His three books on the subject put Tiki firmly on the map of American pop culture, and are regarded as the standard works on the style. See less