Meet April Kraus

Today we’d like to introduce you to April Kraus.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
My interest in photography sparked in my teens, when I dabbled (for about 5 whole minutes) in modeling. I wasn’t very good at it, but I found the cameras and photographers fascinating. From there, I took an intro class at community college and I was hooked. It just made sense to me, and I felt like it was where I belonged. I earned my Bachelor’s in Fine Art Photography from Ohio University, but never wanted to take clients. I wanted to be a “working artist” but quickly realized how difficult it is to do that and make a living.

I started working with families but my work was very generic. I struggled with finding a way to marry my passion and a business. I had only made strictly conceptual work throughout college and was, at the time, trying to be a very traditional portrait photographer. It felt very inauthentic. It wasn’t until after I lost my mom to cancer that I had a renewed love of photographs and a new desire to find my own artistic voice again, that I started making client work that I was truly proud of.

Please tell us about your art.
I make photographs. I photograph people, but I don’t consider myself a portrait photographer. I consider myself an artist who uses photography as my medium. My goal is to capture moments, slivers of time, memories as they happen, insights into who a person really is, fleeting parts of our lives that are changing every day. I don’t strive for perfection, but instead, emotion and truth. My hope is that people will take away something tangible from a moment that is gone forever. I hope that people know that my work is never the same, it takes time and connection and drains me and fills me up all at the same time.

As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
For me, success is making work that I’m proud of. It’s making work that comes from truth and makes my clients happy. Success is finding clients who trust me fully and value me and my artistry. I believe honesty has to be present for an artist to be truly successful.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My blog is aprilkrausphotography.com
I am on Instagram @aprilkrausphotos

You can support me by following and sharing my work! Oh, and hiring me! Thank you!

Contact Info:

• Address: Sierra Vista, AZ
• Website: www.aprilkrausphotography.com
• Email: aprilkrausphotography@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/aprilkrausphotos
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/AprilKrausPhotography

Image Credit:
April Kraus

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