George Krause (born 1937) is an American artist photographer, now retired from the University of Houston where he established the photography department. Krause has published a few books of photographs and his work has been collected by many institutions. He lives and works in Wimberley, Texas.

Early life and education

Krause was born in 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the 1950s, he studied painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography at the Philadelphia College of Art (PCA; now a part of the University of the Arts).

Life and work

While serving in the US Army between 1957 and 1959, he turned his full attention to photography, spending all his free time documenting the culture of the black neighborhoods in the racially segregated communities of South Carolina. Krause later moved in a less documentary direction, seeking images that were more ambiguous and open to viewer interpretation with projects dealing with cemetery monuments, religious statuary, and an atypical series of nudes. In the volume George Krause: a Retrospective published in 1991 in conjunction with a major mid-career exhibition, Anne Wilkes Tucker, the curator of photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, observed: "'Krause explores intensely personal themes rooted in basic human concerns: sensuality, mortality, and mystery....His work is perpetually relevant because his issues are basic and vital to the human condition. Few viewers leave his exhibitions unmoved—be it by indignation, horror, pathos, or wonder.'" Krause lives and works in Wimberley, Texas.

Publications

Grants

Collections

Krause's work is held in the following permanent collections: