Subject Material:
This is a collection of photographic images of prominent personalities,
"an intellectual temple" of the times – principally from German-speaking countries: politicians such as Richard von Weizsäcker, philosophers such as Karl Popper, artists such as Emil Schumacher and Pina Bausch, authors such as Martin Walser and musicians such as Hans Werner Henze. (Aside from these are persons with unusual destinies, people whose faces tell of their fates). Autographs (in facsimile) sensibly enhance the character of this volume of portraits.

Notes on the Individual Images by Ingrid von Kruse
Ingrid von Kruse approached her subjects with extreme prudence – in her own manner, in no way influenced by external commissions. It was her intention to discover in conversation something about the person who for several reasons had roused her interest, not giving precedence to the desire to photograph famous personalities of the times. …The immediate impression of these portraits in photography is the reflection of a private, personal aura: shots that are neither obtrusive nor indiscreet – where the photographed subject does not appear to be the victim of the photographer. …Consequently it is not surprising that she captured with her camera living individuals, individuals who, after all, allowed brief insight into their own emotional spirit.

Klaus Honnef

Without a mask
…Now that daily newspapers, magazines and television inundate us regularly with pictures of persons of standing and reputation, the interest is diverted from the subject to the presentation, the imagination of the photographer.
It is not unusual today that the individual photographed is presented in a minor role among lavish and imaginative scenery. All the more obvious is the simplicity of the photo album “Time and its Moments” which Ingrid von Kruse has elevated to an esthetic stylistic device.
Ninety-one well-known contemporary personalities, from Hermann Josef Abs and Horst Janssen to Gabriele Wohmann glanced into or beyond the camera for these portraits barring accessories, where the background is not revealed by the lighting. The atmosphere is one of privacy; the extracts are carefully selected. Concentrating on gestures and facial expressions alone, you are convinced you are seeing these persons for the first time without a mask….

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 4. April 1988