Rue Kruger (b.1985, South Africa)

is a fine-art photographer whose work traces tenderness, transience, and the quiet rituals of care.

Working with natural light and analogue-inspired digital processes, her images dwell in the fragile gestures that bridge the ordinary and the sacred — a hand holding a flower, a body turning toward or away from light, the pause between holding and release.

Rooted in motherhood, memory, and myth, Kruger’s practice moves between documentary and dreamlike registers, blending instinct with deliberation.

Recurring motifs of skin, fabric, bloom, and breath form a visual language of devotion — an archive of what resists vanishing.

Her ongoing bodies of work, including Hold Fast (2018–2023) and Hold Fast II: The Afterlight (2024–2025), trace the evolving dialogue between care and loss, and the way light bears witness to both.

Across these works, fragility becomes a kind of resilience — a tenderness that endures its own impermanence.

Kruger’s photography has been exhibited in international curated group shows and online platforms dedicated to contemporary photography. She lives and works in the Western Cape, continuing to photograph within and beyond domestic space — exploring the quiet pulse between life and its reflection.