Labyrinth: A Paula Kraus Retrospective

“Photography is the only way I know how to process the world” is how Paula Willmot Kraus introduced herself to each new group of students. Her passion for art infused her view of the world, one that she celebrated and rejoiced in daily. Her photography emerged as visual poetry—evocative images allowing and prompting the viewer to contemplate the natural world anew, marvel at being part of the continuum, and reflect on one’s own life.

As an artist, Kraus drew largely from her immediate surroundings, often using nature and natural forms to explore memory, emotions, and formal aesthetics in her photographic work. Her subjects, though different and ever changing, were intertwined and connected by the delicate relationship between living, and often dead, organisms, their physical environments, and how light and shadow danced and flirted with these elements throughout the frame. Her first retrospective, Labyrinth focuses not only on her well-known imagery, but wanders down lesser known paths, giving us a glimpse into the curious, imaginative, and playful mind of Paula Willmot Kraus.