Born Klaus Gerhart in Illinois in 1965, Gerhart grew up there before moving to Chicago in 1992. He built a photography studio there, but moved to Los Angeles in 1994. He founded Pohlmann Press that same year, and began publishing the work of photographers of the male nude. Among the works the press carried were his own.

Pohlmann Press quickly became one of the largest American publishers of nude male photography. The company published the work of Lorenzo Gomez, Roy Dean, David Vance, Christopher Makos, Joe Ziolkowski, John Phillips, Catherine McIntyre, Nina Glaser, Patrick Sarfati, Dale O'Dell and Chuck Smith, and focused on Gerhart's own work. Pohlmann Press also handled American subscriptions to (not only) blue magazine, an upscale Australian bimonthly magazine of photography which also featured male nudes and semi-nudes.

In 1995, Gerhart created the Naked Gallery—an art gallery but also a publisher of a catalog that specializes in the works of Pohlmann Press, artistic male and female nude imagery, books, calendars, lithographs, and original signed limited edition photographic prints.