IMAGO CAMERA
Portraitfotografie Berlin
Dear friends of IMAGO,
Dear friends of Susanna Kraus,
It is with great regret and deep sorrow that we have to inform you that Susanna Kraus passed away on 9 March 2025. The IMAGO Camera Studio will remain closed.
As the visionary mind behind the IMAGO Camera, in 21 years of IMAGO, Susanna has left a lasting impression on the lives of many people with her artistic flair, her craftsmanship, but above all with her warm and inexhaustible energy – with the IMAGO Camera and beyond.
In 2005, Susanna rediscovered the old walk-in large-format camera that her father, physicist Werner Kraus, and goldsmith Erhard Hößle had developed in the 1970s. Since the day it was reactivated, she has devoted all her energy as an artist to this unique craft of light painting. Over many years of creative and manual labour, she has breathed new life into the camera and managed it with tireless drive, inventiveness and a great deal of love. IMAGO Camera and Susanna Kraus have thus become an integral part of the art and photography scene.
Over the years, thousands of unique IMAGO portraits have been created under Susanna’s direction, each one unique and each carrying Susanna’s artistic signature. The IMAGOgrams and the camera have been exhibited at countless exhibitions in Germany and abroad in the past.
On Susanna’s behalf, her family and friends would like to express their gratitude for the wonderful moments she enjoyed working with IMAGO and the encounters she had with so many warm-hearted people. Susanna’s artistic legacy will be honored in an IMAGO exhibition, announcements will be published here and in our newsletter.
Dear friends of Susanna Kraus,
It is with great regret and deep sorrow that we have to inform you that Susanna Kraus passed away on 9 March 2025. The IMAGO Camera Studio will remain closed.
As the visionary mind behind the IMAGO Camera, in 21 years of IMAGO, Susanna has left a lasting impression on the lives of many people with her artistic flair, her craftsmanship, but above all with her warm and inexhaustible energy – with the IMAGO Camera and beyond.
In 2005, Susanna rediscovered the old walk-in large-format camera that her father, physicist Werner Kraus, and goldsmith Erhard Hößle had developed in the 1970s. Since the day it was reactivated, she has devoted all her energy as an artist to this unique craft of light painting. Over many years of creative and manual labour, she has breathed new life into the camera and managed it with tireless drive, inventiveness and a great deal of love. IMAGO Camera and Susanna Kraus have thus become an integral part of the art and photography scene.
Over the years, thousands of unique IMAGO portraits have been created under Susanna’s direction, each one unique and each carrying Susanna’s artistic signature. The IMAGOgrams and the camera have been exhibited at countless exhibitions in Germany and abroad in the past.
On Susanna’s behalf, her family and friends would like to express their gratitude for the wonderful moments she enjoyed working with IMAGO and the encounters she had with so many warm-hearted people. Susanna’s artistic legacy will be honored in an IMAGO exhibition, announcements will be published here and in our newsletter.
For the first time, the IMAGO Camera is available to be acquired
The process already initiated by Susanna is now being continued by her heirs: the IMAGO Camera is to be passed on to the next generation of photo-art-technology enthusiasts and a successor is to be found. This extraordinary legacy of photographic history is to be preserved and carried into the future.
The IMAGO Camera has been used in artistic photography as a self-portrait camera since 1972. A living, interactive Gesamtkunstwerk between science, art, craft and spectacular self-awareness. A globally unique machine that creates life-size, undistorted portraits without the diversions via the negative – free from digital processes, in unrivalled photographic quality and size. The special photographic setting created by the IMAGO Camera enables an unrivalled degree of authenticity.
The one-of-a-kind IMAGO Camera is now for sale for the first time since its development over 50 years ago. The sale is being organised by bidding and will be managed by Susanna’s sons.
Further information and enquiries: kraus@imagocamera.com
The process already initiated by Susanna is now being continued by her heirs: the IMAGO Camera is to be passed on to the next generation of photo-art-technology enthusiasts and a successor is to be found. This extraordinary legacy of photographic history is to be preserved and carried into the future.
The IMAGO Camera has been used in artistic photography as a self-portrait camera since 1972. A living, interactive Gesamtkunstwerk between science, art, craft and spectacular self-awareness. A globally unique machine that creates life-size, undistorted portraits without the diversions via the negative – free from digital processes, in unrivalled photographic quality and size. The special photographic setting created by the IMAGO Camera enables an unrivalled degree of authenticity.
The one-of-a-kind IMAGO Camera is now for sale for the first time since its development over 50 years ago. The sale is being organised by bidding and will be managed by Susanna’s sons.
Further information and enquiries: kraus@imagocamera.com
„
Pictures of unique aesthetics“
SÜDDEUTSCHEZEITUNG
IMAGO CAMERA
Portrait photography Berlin
IMAGO is more than a camera. IMAGO is an experience. The only walk-in large-format camera in the world. It is created for the self-portrait and indulges our yearning for the great and unique. With Imago you discover the beauty of photography and the pleasure of your own portrait. Its unbelievable size of 7 x 4 x 3 meters makes it the giant of all cameras. And every portrait that is conjured up gives you an artistic view of yourself. The IMAGO Camera is the analogue revolution of portrait photography and its product is the ultimate portrait.
IMAGOGRAMM
The self-portrait
The aura of the IMAGO captivates you, arouses your inner self, challenges your creativity, puts you in the right light and immediately banishes you onto silver gelatine photo paper. The light packages that touch you when you release the shutter draw your image in the dark room. Just 10 minutes later, you are holding your life-size full-body portrait in your hands. Each portrait is an original, an irreplaceable unique piece. 60 x 200 cm, black and white and 1: 1. A contemporary document, a true statement.
IMAGOGRAFIE
The process
Step into your corpus and into a dialogue with yourself. Close the door, open your senses and press the trigger for your very own self-portrait. No one who demands a smile from you. You alone take over the direction, make your picture with the help of a page-right mirror, which shows you as your counterpart sees you. You become photographer and photographed in one person. IMAGO breaks with viewing habits, reduces to the essential and makes the unique unmistakably visible.
IMAGO SESSION
THE CAMERA AND YOU
IMAGO HISTORY
History & Photo Paper
In 1970, the researcher Werner Kraus gets an unusual job. For Daimler-Benz he is to photographically document the combustion in the Wankel engine. Werner Kraus develops an extremely fast lens which reproduces the process on a scale of 1: 1. He immediately recognizes the artistic potential of this unique optical system. Together with sculptor Erhard Hößle, he launches an unprecedented project that combines science, art, craftsmanship and spectacular self-awareness. He builds the IMAGO Camera.
In 2005, Susanna Kraus takes the original 1970’s IMAGO Camera out of the Neue Sammlung der Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich and brings it back into operation. For more than 25 years the camera was kept in Munich by Professor Florian Hufnagl, the head of the new collection. The production of the special Direct Positive Paper, indispensable for the operation of IMAGO, was discontinued in 1978, so Susanna Kraus sets out on a quest. Eventually, in 2006, she persuades ILFORD Switzerland to re-start the production of the silver gelatine black and white photo paper and Ilford adds its legendary Ilfochrome look. This reactivates the IMAGO Camera. A contemporary photographic medium with a timeless character. First relaunched exclusively for IMAGO, IMAGO Direkt Positiv Papier is now a popular paper among photographers for large-format photography. The special IMAGO and HARMAN Baryta Direct Positive Paper are available here in our shop.