Tobias Kruse was born in 1979 in Mecklenburg, Northeast Germany. He studied photography at Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie with Prof. Ute Mahler and attended the Masterclass of Prof. Arno Fischer. He became a member of agency OSTKREUZ - Photographer's Agency in march 2011.

Together with the other OSTKREUZ members, he worked on projects like "24h Berlin" and "On Borders" that were exhibited in renowned galleries like C/O Berlin, Deutsches Hygiene Museum or Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Besides that he exhibited both collectively and individually two times at the New York Photo Festival, in the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and at the Photo festival Hannover and in numerous other galleries in Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland. He was nominated for the Prix Voies Off in Arles, France in 2007, mentioned honorably at Leads Awards in the category "Reportage Photography" and at the Epson Art Photo Award both in 2008. In that year he won the New York Photo Award in the category "Student Editorial Series". Additionally he is the winner of the international Photo Festival F/Stop 2010 in Leipzig, Germany.

Tobias Kruse has worked for prestigious magazines and newspapers like Der Spiegel, Tagesanzeiger Magazin, Zeit Magazine, Dummy, Neon Die Zeit, die tageszeitung and Weltwoche. Moreover, he published his photographs as books accompanying his exhibition bei Steidl, powerHouse Books and Hatje Cantz. He works and lives in Berlin.