A selection of artistic works and exhibitions. IMAGO Camera 1972 – 2025.
You can find current exhibition and project dates under NEWS.
You can find current exhibition and project dates under NEWS.
1970’s
Self-portraits from the years 1972 – 78
1972 – 1978, Munich
Archive Kraus Collection
©Susanna Kraus/IMAGO Camera
Self-portraits from the 1970s, taken in private and public sessions with the participation of the inventor and builder of the IMAGO Camera (Werner Kraus & Erhard Hößle), including fashion photographs, portraits of artists and shots from the family environment. After the revival of the IMAGO Camera in 2006, we were able to collect around 70 portraits from this period. Some of the portraits are in good condition, others are in need of restoration.
Ernst Fuchs triptych: © Ernst Fuchs Private Foundation Vienna
Ernst Fuchs triptych: © Ernst Fuchs Private Foundation Vienna
ARTIST PORTRAITS
2006 – 2025
Thematic work
©Susanna Kraus/IMAGO Camera
This series of artist portraits has been growing continuously since 2006 in an interplay of forces between the artist’s idea, the creative determination and eye of Susanna Kraus and the distinctive photographic technique and aesthetics of the IMAGO Camera.
THE ARTISTS OF GALERIE HAAS
Commissioned work for the gallery owner Michael Haas
Berlin, 2012 – 2025
Commissioned work
On behalf of the Berlin gallery owner Michael Haas, life-size self-portraits with the artists of his gallery have been created since 2012 in the IMAGO Camera, photographs using various analog techniques.
KUNSTKRAFTWERKER
Les Magiciens de Karlsruhe
– The Four Magicians of Karlsruhe
2007/2008, ZKM Karlsruhe
Exhibition
©Susanna Kraus/IMAGO Camera
As part of a project sponsored by the Werner-Stober-Stiftung titled “Kunstkraftwerker”, self-portraits were created of these four Karlsruhe personalities, namely Hans Belting, Wolfgang Rihm, Peter Sloterdijk and Peter Weibel, who have decisively shaped both the ZKM and the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) as well as the intellectual life and international reputation of the city, which is often referred to as the “Weimar of the 21st century”. “Les magiciens de Karlsruhe – the four magicians of Karlsruhe”, as Hubert Burda called them.
FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY
An experiment on the occasion of the European
Month of Photography
2020, Berlin
Exhibition
For the first time, fashion photographer Esther Haase (Hamburg and London) used the IMAGO Camera as a medium for herself and explored the aspect of fashion photography that emerges free from the idea of commercialization. This series was created in 2014, for which Esther Haase put aside her usual camera and made use of the unique technical and aesthetic specifications of the IMAGO Camera.
Back in 2006 and 2010, designer Karin Jessen/Benu Berlin and Viennese jewelry designer Florian Ladstätter used the distinctive aesthetics of the IMAGO Camera for an artistic approach to the fashion theme.
Back in 2006 and 2010, designer Karin Jessen/Benu Berlin and Viennese jewelry designer Florian Ladstätter used the distinctive aesthetics of the IMAGO Camera for an artistic approach to the fashion theme.
CIRCUS RONCALLI
Artist portraits
2007, Munich
Exhibition
©Susanna Kraus/IMAGO Camera
In 2007, IMAGO Camera entered into a magical alliance with Circus Roncalli: The IMAGO Camera was given its own tent on the circus grounds by the founder of Roncalli, Bernhard Paul, and during the 4-week duration of Roncalli’s stay on Munich’s Theresienwiese, the IMAGO team brought the Circus artists into the IMAGO Camera for portraits, one after the other. This usually happened while the show was running, between two performances. The portrait had to be on point in minutes. During the big break, the IMAGO Camera was marveled at by the visitors themselves!
WE! ARE! HERE!
A photographic “Nevertheless”.
Survivors of the Shoa and their descendants in 15 life-size portraits and their thoughts on the Wannsee Conference.
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 2022.
Exhibition in the Berlin House of Representatives.
A project by History&Documentation e.V.
Dr. Julien Reitzenstein created a commemorative installation for the non-profit academic organization History & Documentation e.V. to mark the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference. This installation was exhibited in the Berlin House of Representatives from January 20 to March 3, 2022. A central element of the installation was the series of portraits of Shoa survivors with their (great-)grandchildren created in the IMAGO Camera in 2021/22.
This project by History & Documentation e.V. was realized with funds from the LOTTO Foundation Berlin.
©Susanna Kraus/IMAGO Camera
Exhibition view at the Berlin House of Representatives
ALL IN ONE
Cypriot Miniatures
2010, Berlin, Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus
Exhibition
©Susanna Kraus & Michalis Papamichael/IMAGO Camera/
The project examines the space of human experience. The inner and the outer. It deals with various dualistic border issues: Time, light and shadow, being together, being alone, presence and absence. In the photographs, bodies are made visible as spaces and spaces are embodied. Interpersonal and subjective structures of power and powerlessness, strength and weakness, equality and inequality are examined. By Susanna Kraus and Michalis Papamichael. Exhibition at the Cultural Department, Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Berlin under the direction of Georgea Solomontos, Cultural Attaché.
ALICE
In search of one’s self
2010, Berlin
Exhibition
©Susanna Kraus/IMAGO Camera
A free interpretation of the states of mind of “Alice in Wonderland”, which makes the search for one’s own identity visible. The use of mirrors is ambiguous. On the one hand, it serves as a technical device in the camera and, on the other, as a creative means of the image idea. The mirroring of a being in search of itself …
Make-up: Romy Medina, Costume: Rakel Fernandez
Make-up: Romy Medina, Costume: Rakel Fernandez
ERNST FUCHS
The Warrior: created in 2007, in Vienna,
in collaboration with Ernst Fuchs, tetratych, signed
Ernst Fuchs with his wife, triptych, Munich 1974
Ernst Fuchs, co-founder of the Viennese School of Fantastic Realism, experimented repeatedly in the IMAGO Camera in the 1970s – it was located in a gallery in Munich at the time. This is how the ‘golden screen’ (owned by the Ernst Fuchs Private Foundation in Vienna) was created.
In 2006, while the IMAGO Camera was celebrating its revival in Vienna after almost 30 years and Susanna Kraus invited the Viennese psychoanalysts into the Camera for a self-portrait, this small series was created, signed by E. Fuchs. A dream, a hommage to the psychedelic 70s.
In 2006, while the IMAGO Camera was celebrating its revival in Vienna after almost 30 years and Susanna Kraus invited the Viennese psychoanalysts into the Camera for a self-portrait, this small series was created, signed by E. Fuchs. A dream, a hommage to the psychedelic 70s.
FOUR JEWS ON PARNASSUS
A conversation
2008, Berlin
Commissioned work
©Susanna Kraus/IMAGO Camera
Photographic work in the form of a stage element. For a staged reading of an essay by Carl Djerassi “4 Jews on the Parnassus” directed by Isabella Gregor.
ANDERENBLICK
Berlin chefs in self-portrait
October 2021, Fabrik 23, Berlin
Exhibition
©Susanna Kraus/IMAGO Camera
The faces in this exhibition from October 2021 not only stand for the new cuisine in Berlin, they set standards – often ‘crazy’ and always with gusto. This contemporary document was created in 2021 under the sword of Damocles of Covid. Restaurants, art and culture were closed for a long time. This exhibition project was therefore also intended to help inspire a new start.
Making Of
BERLIN IS
WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT
Exhibition as part of the charity summer party
organized by mein/4, Markus Beeth
on 18.06.2023
at Königstadt Berlin
©Susanna Kraus/IMAGO Camera
For a major fundraising campaign as part of a charity summer party, 10 celebrities from Berlin entered IMAGO Camera Berlin together with representatives of the projects they support.
The “couples” are representative of the thousands of volunteers who work in and for Berlin. Further information can be found at:
https://meinviertel.berlin/berlin-ist-was-du-daraus-machst/
The “couples” are representative of the thousands of volunteers who work in and for Berlin. Further information can be found at:
https://meinviertel.berlin/berlin-ist-was-du-daraus-machst/
TATTOO
One’s own skin as a mirror of the self –
a portrait cycle with personalities
from the Berlin tattoo scene
2018, Berlin
Exhibition
©Susanna Kraus/IMAGO Camera
The tattooed body is declared an art zone. Those who ‘inscribe’ themselves communicate themselves as sculptors, the work of art is created on the skin. It’s not just about this unique language, which comes to life when the tattooed person reveals something with their tattoo that tells a story. Physical, psychological or cultural challenges become visible, as do identities, origins and questions.
OUTSIDE IN
A portrait of May 1
May 1, 2011, Berlin
Exhibition
©Susanna Kraus/IMAGO Camera
To mark the launch of the IMAGO Camera at its new location in Berlin Kreuzberg, this series of portraits was created during several sessions during Walpurgis Night and the May Day demonstrations. As if drawing a circle around the massive housing of the IMAGO 1:1, the project reflects motifs and people from the outside of the Kreuzberg area into the inside of the IMAGO space. The session thus becomes a reflection of the surroundings and its present.
Exhibition view
DIVINE PLAY
Photographic reflections on Greek mythology
Vienna, 2007
Exhibition
©Susanna Kraus/IMAGO Camera
This theme is about the visual-aesthetic examination of collective patterns of imagination that are reflected in the figures of Greek mythology. Greek myths continue to provide images for the cultural self-perception of the Western world.
By Susanna Kraus and Annegret Kohlmayer.
By Susanna Kraus and Annegret Kohlmayer.
PRIVATE CUSTOMERS
Self-portraits 2006 – 2025
©IMAGO Camera
Since the revival of the IMAGO Camera in 2006, there has also been the possibility to use the IMAGO Camera for your own idea of a self-portrait. Numerous iconic portraits were created over the years.
