Born in 2000, Kraus begged her parents for a digital camera when she was 8 years old and has not stopped photographing since. Armed with her tiny, point-and-shoot camera, she spent elementary school shooting assemblages of the animal figurines on her desk and plants in her garden. By eighth grade, she began photographing more seriously, inspired by the natural beauty of her twin sister, Vivi.

Kraus started her photography Instagram account @vivaciouslyy in 2016 to celebrate Vivi who, at the time, did not feel as confident with her self-image. Vivi has since remained Kraus’s primary muse, and her Instagram account now showcases over three hundred photographs which trace her development as a self-taught photographer.

iPhones were Kraus’s first camera of choice as their accessibility and immediacy made them the perfect tool to capture the split-second images she visualizes in her head. Kraus has since become fluent with using “real” cameras in her professional work, but she is proud to have sold a dozen of her early iPhone prints to collectors across the country.

Kraus is also an avid illustrator, screen-printer, and outdoorswoman. She loves birds and is currently focused on a self-designed Mellon fellowship aiming to de-stigmatize urban pigeons through photographic portraiture. She is pursuing a BA in Visual Art and Humanities at Scripps College in southern California.