Frank
Krems

Punks and New Romantics are the first subjects Frank Krems, born 1960 in Bochum, portrays — even before becoming an assistant to Pan Walther at FH Dortmund in 1980. The Punks at parties with canned beer and tsatsiki, the Romantics in carefully groomed poses, all shot in high-contrast black and white. Already in these early photographs the two attitudes that would define his later work become visible: a deeply empathic interest in the people around him, and an almost documentary sobriety in subject and arrangement — combined with an attentive, critical reflection on human behaviour.

The 1981 Deutscher Jugend-Fotopreis and his time with Pan Walther confirm his wish to study photography at the Folkwangschule für Gestaltung, where the exchange with fellow students sharpens his approach. A reduced, yet clearly readable staging becomes part of his practice; he asks people whose presence fascinates him to sit for sessions, and the trust between photographer and subject shows in the open gaze of his models — close, but also vulnerable.

After graduating in 1988 commissioned portraits follow — Helmut Schmidt, Branford Marsalis, Anna Schudt, Astrid Lindgren and many others — for editorial clients such as stern, Der Spiegel, Elle, ZEITmagazin and Brigitte. His portraits show public figures as human beings while remaining aesthetically precise, never mannered.

In the 2000s the single portrait is joined by narrative sequences. Die Einsamkeit des Mannes beim Grillen (2000) and Der Vertreter für Zimmerspringbrunnen (2005) are absurd stagings in which Krems reflects on social roles and their clichés. He moves to colour, with fewer people in the frame; image and title together — through ironic breaks and associative critique — point to the conditio humana and the doubtful state of society at large.

Since 2010, and especially on Instagram from 2020, he develops extensive open series, sometimes expanded over years. Your Temporality is not my Temporality (2020–2022) consists of image pairs revealed by horizontal swiping on @krems_dasgutebild; Hamburg ist schön. Hier … adds a commenting title to each frame. Alongside, more serious projects such as Bochum – schön is anders! — an elegiac look at his home town after structural change — continue his long-term commitment to people and place.