Kruger was born of a working-class family on 18 April 1831,[3] at 16 Steingassestrasse, Berlin, Germany, and was baptised Johān Friedrich Carl Krüger.

We must look closely to get the full value of his sense of history: in small details in countless views, usually in the lower foreground, are the little figures he has assembled to tell us about those people and times and places, with a great deal of precious visual information.

He positions people strategically throughout the photograph and at a slight remove so that they are part of, rather than dominant figure in, an intricate visual imaging of the populated landscape.

Kruger gained commissions from house owners to photograph their homes, the most famous of which was from Lady Loch, the wife of the Governor.

[14] Kruger concentrated on landscape photographs,[13] a comprehensive exhibition of which, Fred Kruger: Intimate Landscapes, was held at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from 4 February to 8 July 2012, featuring over 100 prints of towns, buildings and streets familiar to present-day Victorians; the Esplanade at Queenscliff, Point Lonsdale and the You Yangs, amongst other locations around Victoria.

Kruger's expansive but richly detailed views provide visual data on the social and political standards of Victoria in the mid to late 19th century.