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Jill Krementz

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Jill Krementz
BornFebruary 19, 1940 (1940-02-19) (age 84)
Morristown, New Jersey, U.S.
Notable workMarch on the Pentagon, cover of New York Times Magazine
StylePhotography
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1979; died 2007)​
Children1
AwardsWashington Post/Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award

Jill Krementz (born February 19, 1940) is an American photographer and author.[1] She has published 31 books, mostly of photography and children's books. She was married to Kurt Vonnegut for almost 30 years.[2][3]

Biography

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Krementz grew up in Morristown, New Jersey and moved to New York City in her late teens.[4] In 1961, she received a Nikon camera as a 21st birthday present, and continued to build a career as a photographer and photojournalist. In the 1960s, she worked as a photographer for the New York Herald-Tribune.[5] Her color photography of the 1967 March on the Pentagon was featured on the cover of The New York Times Magazine.[6] In 1965, she spent a year taking photographs in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Her photojournalist works have appeared in The New York Observer.[7][8]

Krementz later specialized in photographing writers. A major profile of her, written by Dorothy Gelatt, was published in the Spring 1975 issue of 35mm Photography (Ziff-Davis Publishing Company). According to the article, Krementz decided in 1970 to "fill the author picture vacuum". Working only with the aid of a secretary she built and ran a large library of photographs of authors. Most of her photographs at that time were in black and white. The article described her as working with a minimum of photographic equipment (two 35mm camera bodies and three lenses) and having her prints made by Erika Leone at the Meridian photographic laboratory. At the time the article was written, "the Krementz stock list of authors totalled roughly 542".[9] Four years later, her count was over 800.[10]

In 1970, Krementz met Kurt Vonnegut during the production of his play Happy Birthday, Wanda June in Greenwich Village. The two married in 1979 and in 1982, they adopted a daughter, Lily, when the baby was three days old.[11] They remained married until his death in 2007.

Krementz's photographs were exhibited at Nikon House Gallery in New York the mid-1970s. In 1980, her book The Writer's Image (David R. Godine, Boston) was published, featuring black-and-white photographs, with a preface written by Kurt Vonnegut, and an introduction by Trudy Butner Krisher.[12] In 1984 Krementz was awarded the Washington Post/Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award for “creatively produced books, works that make a difference.”[13]

In 2004, a major exhibition of her work was held at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut. Writers Unbound featured warm, intimate portraits of authors in their homes and at their desks.[14]

References

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  1. ^ Taft, William H. (2015). Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Journalists. Rutledge. p. 194. ISBN 9781317403258. OCLC 913955667. Retrieved January 5, 2017 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Fehrman, Craig (October 11, 2011). "The Last Word". The New Republic. Archived from the original on December 10, 2023. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  3. ^ Krementz, Jill. "How it Feels When a Parent Dies". Penguin Random House. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  4. ^ Klemesrud, Judy (November 14, 1982). "Jill Krementz Carves a Niche". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  5. ^ Weinreich, Regina (January 26, 1997). "Putting Words to Paper, Through the Lens". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 10, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  6. ^ "Talk with Jill Krementz, author of "The writer's desk"". Booknotes. C-SPAN. June 1, 1997. Archived from the original on January 31, 2012. Retrieved January 16, 2012.
  7. ^ "Author: Jill Krementz". The New York Observer. Archived from the original on April 17, 2022. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  8. ^ Krementz, Jill (January 19, 2015). "Photojournalist Jill Krementz Remembers Dr. King's 'I Have a Dream' Speech". The New York Observer. Archived from the original on June 24, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  9. ^ Gelatt, Dorothy (Spring 1975). "Profile: Jill Krementz". 35mm Photography, Ziff-Davis Publishing Company.
  10. ^ Lenhart, Maria (June 5, 1979). "800 favorite authors--on film". The Christian Science Monitor.
  11. ^ Farrell, Susan (2008). Critical Companion to Kurt Vonnegut: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts on File. p. 451. ISBN 978-0816065981. OCLC 172521765. Retrieved November 6, 2024 – via Google Books.
  12. ^ Singer, Mark (December 23, 1974). "Five Gatherings (Musical and Otherwise)". The New Yorker. pp. 28–29. Archived from the original on August 4, 2020. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  13. ^ "Author: Jill Krementz". Penguin Random House. Archived from the original on October 3, 2022. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  14. ^ Kores, Noah (November 11, 2004). "Krementz Show at Twain". Hartford Courant. Archived from the original on November 7, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
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