Gregor Krause (6 March 1883 – 25 August 1959) was a German physician (GP) and amateur photographer, active in Indonesia in the first decades of the 20th century. He published two photographic books: Insel Bali (1920), reprinted in 1922 and 1926. A French edition appeared in 1930. The portfolio Borneo was published in 1926. Krause provided extensive texts to accompany his photographs and over twenty illustrated articles on Bali and Borneo in the Dutch magazine Nederlandsch-Indië Oud & Nieuw as well as articles in Eigen Haard a popular Dutch illustrated magazine and other magazines.
Krause became internationally famous because of his photobooks on Bali.In the context of German photobooks, see Rainer Stamm, ‘Vom imaginaren Weltkunst-Museum zur Neuen Sachlichkeit: Folkwang-Verlag, Auriga-Verlag, Folkwang- Auriga Verlag’, in M Heiting and R Jaeger (eds), Autopsie: Deutschsprachige Fotobucher, 1918 bis 1945—Band 1, Steidl, Gottingen, 2012, pp 83–5. His pictures showed an enchanted nature, a pristine island and a harmonious way of life, in which religion and art were an integral part of daily life. The first edition of his photobook Insel Bali consisted of two parts, containing pictures of the countryside, farming life, markets, religious festivals, dances and cremation ceremonies.
The Bali books had extensive informative texts by Krause. Both his pictures of Balinese nudes, women and men bathing, and of cremation ceremonies, attracted attention. For the 1910s-20s Krause was ahead of his time as a modern documentary photographer, photojournalist and in his environmental concerns. His vibrant and sequential images were taken within living communities and recorded unstaged ceremonies. The exotic content attracted more attention than his reports on customs and culture. The books initially served more as an impetus for tourism to Bali than for further ethnographic study.
The Borneo portfolio in three folders shows 36 sequential images of monkeys that are like portraits, and atmospheric pictures of the lush tidal forest of Borneo.
Early life and education Krause was born 6 March 1883 Insterburg, East Prussia (now Chernyakhovsk, Russia) the son of Heinrich Krause Stamboeken Officieren Koloniale Reserve, Nationaal Archief, the Hague, NA 13.04-661, folio 31 & NA 2.13.04-684, folio 71.and Maria Foetkenheuer Anna Wilhelmina Margaretha Bachmann.Vreemdelingenregister Amsterdam, 1918. He was raised with two sisters in a Roman Catholic family. High culture played an important part of his education. The family enjoyed classical music and literature. During the second phase of his youth the family lived in Allenstein in Mazuria, now Poland. Krause spent much time in the woods and around the lakes. He had to choose between a training as a medical doctor or a priest. He had uncles in both professions.
Krause studied medicine in Koningsbergen (Königsberg, nowadays Kaliniengrad, Russia), then moved to Berlin around 1906 where he worked as intern in an accident clinic. In 1908 he graduated in Hamburg.
Career Krause became a ship’s doctor and sailed to the West Indies. He considered working at a leprosy clinic in Curaçao. Back in Hamburg Krause contacted the Dutch consul about this plan, but was advised to engage as a military doctor in the Dutch East Indian Army (KNIL). By the end of 1911 he had arrived in Surabaya and worked there in the military hospital for several months, but the work was too dull for his liking. In August 1912 Krause went to a garrison in the market village of Bangli in Bali, and remained there until the end of 1913.Gregor Krause, Memoires, z.j., Voorjaar in Viervoud, p.3 [unpublished, Nederlands Fotomuseum, collection Wereldmuseum Rotterdam].The Memoires make no mention of Dr Krause's photographic activity.
Bangli, Bali Only a couple of years before Krause arrived, the last Dutch military raid took place in Bali. There was a military clinic in the garrison near the village of Bangli, which locals turned to for medical aid. Krause thought this situation undesirable due the risk of contamination in dealing with a cholera outbreak. The monarch of Bangli allowed him to establish a clinic on a square of the village. A building was erected with an examination room, operating theatre and two hospital wards. A Balinese colleague referred patients to Krause. Each day about 30 people attended his clinic.
During his stay, being their doctor, Krause learned about the Balinese. He studied their culture and language and realised after almost a year he wanted to depict Balinese life as objectively as possible. This made him decide to turn to photography as a documentary tool.Deli Courant, 27-1-1926, interview J.J. van der Laan with Gregor Krause. It is not known if Krause had some prior instruction in photography or was self-taught.
Krause wandered about Bangli village, photographing at the market place and in the streets. While joining in the daily bathing in the open air, he photographed the bathers as he recalled almost unnoticed."Everything is beautiful, perfectly beautiful—the bodies, the clothes, the gait, every posture, every movement’, he recalled, ‘nobody even noticed I was taking them’. Gregor Krause, quoted in Hugh Mabbett, ‘About Gregor Krause’, in Bali 1912: photographs and reports by Gregor Krause, H Mabbett (trans), January Books, Wellington, 1988, pp 8–9. He photographed in the countryside, depicting farmers at work. He also took a camera along on military patrols through the region, where he spoke before desa (village) parliaments, giving medical information on how to prevent dysentery. A great many religious festivals and about 40 cremation ceremonies were attended. Balinese art and architecture were also of interest.
With a small camera he made about 4000 pictures, many being stereoscopic. He did not include any images of his work as a doctor in a Military unit in his published images. Some family images are held by the Nederlands FotoMuseum collection.
After Bali
Krause left the army and met his Dutch wife. He was employed as civil servant by the Dutch government for their pest control campaign in Java, in which he served from 1914 up to 1916.Stamboeken Stamboeken Officieren Koloniale Reserve, NA 2.10.50-24, folio 6102.
During the First World War he was summoned to return to Germany to join the army. However, he was arrested during his journey back to Europe at a stop in Durban, South Africa. From there he was transferred to a prisoner of war camp near London.Gregor Krause, Memoires, Hellevaarten I, p.1 [unpublished, Nederlands, Fotomuseum, collection Wereldmuseum Rotterdam]
Back in the Netherlands Krause gave lectures, each time showing about 100 lantern slides. He spoke (in German) for artists associations Pulchri Studio in the Hague and Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam, as well as for members of amateur photography societies and subscribers of the photographic magazine Focus. Krause never joined a photography society nor took part in their photography salons.
He lectured before a range of audiences, including members of the association ‘Oost en West’ for people about to work or having lived in the Dutch East Indies.Focus, jrg. 6, 17-11-1919, pp. 390-391. The secretary of that association, L.D. Petit, held lectures throughout the Netherlands on his behalf when Krause was back in Indonesia. Krause himself also spoke to medical students, Indonesian students in the Netherlands, and craftsmen such as goldsmiths.Algemeen Handelsblad, 26-2-1919.
Between 1917 and 1933 Krause published more than 20 illustrated articles on Bali and Borneo in the magazine Nederlandsch-Indië Oud & Nieuw, a monthly about architecture, arts and crafts, ethnology etc., published by architect Eduard Cuypers. Cuypers, precursor of the architectural style the Amsterdamse School, was also publisher of the magazine Het Nederlandsche en Nederlandsch Indische Huis Oud & Nieuw on architecture in the Dutch East Indies.
Krause wrote on Balinese art in the daily newspaper Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant (NRC), on hygiene among the Balinese in the medical magazine Janus and on Balinese dances in Wendingen, a monthly for arts and architecture.
From 14 to 28 February 1917 the exhibition ‘Bali in Beeld’ was held at Arti et Amicitiae, the building of the artists association in the centre of Amsterdam. It was organised in cooperation with the magazine Nederlands Indië Oud & Nieuw. Apart from Krause’s pictures, (copies of) drawings by the Dutch artist W.O.J. Nieuwenkamp and paintings by the American artist Maurice Sterne were shown. Along with smaller black and white prints a selection of enlarged pictorial prints in matte grey and warm brown shades was shown. These were made by a ‘well known Amsterdam based photographer’, probably Alex Bratsch.W.O.J. Niewenkamp, Elseviers Geïllustreerd Maandschrift, aug. 1917, p.101. Architect Eduard Cuypers commissioned Bratsch on a regular basis to document buildings designed by him.
The expo was covered extensively by the press and reviewed very well. Due to its success it was prolonged until 7th March. Krause’s prints had previously been shown at Pulchri Studio in The Hague, just for one day. Also in 1917 the prints were shown in Leeuwarden, in Amsterdam again and in Rotterdam. A couple of years later they were on show at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1921) and in the Colonial Museum in Amsterdam (1923).
In the Netherlands Krause had to study medicine again and in 1919 got his Dutch degree in Leiden. He befriended Dutch painters like Charley Toorop, member of the famous Dutch art movement Bergense School, the poets Adriaan Roland Holst and Henriëtte Roland Holst and novelist Augusta de Wit. Sioe Kie Kroes-Li, adopted daughter of Gregor Krause verbal communication, to curator Anneke Groenveld, Amsterdam 1988. Copies held Nederlands Fotomuseum She gave lectures on Bali using Krause’s slides.Algemeen Handelsblad,25-3-1919.
Insel Bali In 1920 Insel Bali was published by Folkwang Verlag, Hagen, Germany. Art historian Karl With, the author of the introduction, selected the 400 pictures for the two volumes, for Krause himself was working on Borneo for the Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (BPM, later Shell).
Themes in the book were Land und Volk (volume I), Tänze, Tempel, Feste (volume II). The focus was environment, culture, the Dutch military, and civilian presence was not included. The books were distributed internationally and sold out within a year.Gregor Krause, Insel Bali, reprint 1926, Preface.
A second, abridged edition was also printed by Folkwang Verlag in 1922, again with a selection of pictures by Karl With, but only 207 images this time.
A third edition appeared in 1926, this time printed by Georg Muller Verlag of Munich. The latter was composed by Krause himself, as was the French edition of 1930, printed in Paris. All reprints consistied of one volume. Krause left out the pictures made by his friend Maurice Sterne.Gregor Krause, Insel Bali, reprint 1926, Preface.
Reception of Insel Bali Insel Bali was published only two years after the ending of the First World War. The images were interpreted as showing an unspoiled paradise.
Painters like Isaac Israëls, Walter Spies, Rudolf Bonnet and Miguel Covarrubias, photographers like Hugo Bernatzik and Gotthard Schuh, writers and anthropologists were enticed to travel to Bali.
The pictures were considered to be artless, realistic and natural, without people posing for the pictures. Artists regularly compared the ‘simple lines’ of Krause’s pictures to the paintings Paul Gauguin made in Polynesia. The depicted bodies were compared to ‘living statues’.