
PICTORIAL STORY
April 13, 2025
FRAGMENTS OF TIME
Photography by Jens F. Kruse (jfk)
Story by Melanie Meggs
Jens F. Kruse’s (jfk) life journey so far is anything but conventional. A husband, father, musician, Michelin-star chef, and teacher, he is now shaping his career as a street photographer. Jfk has always been in pursuit of the ephemeral — whether in flavors, melodies, or light. Since 1975, when he first picked up a camera, he has been drawn to the idea that nothing remains unchanged. His journey through analogue photography, art and music studies, and his move to Spain in 1999 all point toward a restless creative spirit. By embracing digital photography in 2003 and taking his work “on the road" in 2018, he has sought to make sense of the ever-changing world around him. Jfk’s latest project, Fragments of Time, offers a compelling perspective on fleeting moments and the layered complexity of everyday existence.
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In ‘Fragments of Time’, jfk constructs visual stories that layer multiple perspectives within a single frame. His unique approach juxtaposes wide angle street scenes with focused fragments, creating a sense of dissonance and harmony all at once.
“I emphasize the complexity of my view of urban life by combining landscape-format street scenes with portrait-format fragments of urban spaces to create labyrinthine panoramas.”
Each diptych functions as a microcosm of the city, allowing viewers to experience urban life as constant fragmented glimpses, mirroring the unpredictable nature of human interactions. Jfk’s approach suggests that reality is not something we passively witness but something we actively piece together. In the blur of movement, the fleeting glances, the shifting reflections in shop windows, we construct our own stories. And yet, within this fragmentation, there is a kind of order — a rhythm, a composition, a pulse that mirrors the music of life itself.
At the core of jfk’s artistic philosophy lies a deep fascination with time, perception, and the beauty of the unexpected. In his own words, he expresses this philosophy through a poetic reflection:
The perception of time plays an important role here.
In the chaos of fleeting moments, time dances to its own rhythm,
a melody that seems to be constantly falling apart.
Creating order in chaos.
Because even in chaos, there are moments of clarity.
For me, it’s about:
The joy of seeing. The joy of the moment. The joy of living.
My images are an invitation to reflect on
how the world appears.
With vibrant Mediterranean colors, I get a little closer
to the moments that cannot be predicted. Always ready to embrace the unexpected.
Through the creation of diptychs, new spaces emerge!
I encourage everyone to view reality from a new perspective
and to transcend the familiar boundaries of perception.
In these moments of silence, not only fragments of time are revealed,
but also the fragility of our own perception of reality.
What is real, and what is illusion? In his photography, jfk challenges the viewer to consider whether we ever see the world as it truly is or only as our mind arranges it. By intentionally and seamlessly combining horizontal landscapes with vertical portraits, jfk playfully reconstructs how we actually see. We don’t just stare into space; instead, our curiosity drives us to focus on details or notice things in the periphery of our vision as they move into focus. This approach invites us to reconsider how our minds direct our attention, shaping what we truly perceive — and ultimately, how those perceptions become our memory.
Since 2018, jfk has fully embraced life on the road, his photography has become increasingly spontaneous, driven by his nomadic approach to visual storytelling. He describes himself as a "hunter on the road”. With his camera, he steps into the lives of strangers for a mere fraction of a second, capturing not what he sees, but what he thinks — an idea that transforms photography from documentation into interpretation. His photographs are not simply about what happened at a given moment but about how that moment felt, how it resonated beyond itself. His work has become more introspective, focusing on the interplay between people and their environments acknowledging that people and environments are inseparable; the streets shape those who walk them, just as those who walk them leave behind echoes of their presence.

In ‘Fragments of Time’, Jens F. Kruse acknowledges that perfection is not found in permanence but in the fleeting, ever-changing dance of life. And in capturing these ephemeral instants, he reminds us of the fundamental truth of existence: everything is in motion, and yet, for just a moment, it all makes sense. His diptychs do not just depict the world — they reimagine it, bending time and space to reveal hidden connections. His streets become a theater of the unexpected, where each of his combined frames tells a story that extends beyond what is seen. Jfk will always push the boundaries of street photography, proving that narratives are something we construct from fragments of experience.

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