Margaret Kraus is a photographer who explores themes of the self versus the other. She is fascinated by how desire, revulsion, and fear operate within us, dictating our senses-of-self, our relationships with one another, and our connections with non-human beings. Kraus often centers “others” – such as animals labeled as pests, or discarded trash – as the subjects of her photographs, exploring the interplay between disgust and desire in urban environments. 

Margaret begged her parents for a digital camera when she was 8 years old and has not stopped photographing since. She spent her childhood shooting portraits of her twin brother and continues to pursue photography along with silkscreen printing, illustration, and graphic design. She has interned at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and taught silkscreen printing workshops at The Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity (the Hive). She sells original, screen-printed apparel at local markets across the country.

Margaret has received creative grants from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She has a BA in Visual Art and Humanities from Scripps College.

Her most recent adventure was a year-long Watson Fellowship studying human relationships with urban wildlife in major cities around the world. She traveled alone throughout India, Australia, and Italy, taking photographs, making connections, and creating an illustrated blog series. She currently resides in Kansas City, Missouri.