Victor Hugo Etler Kraftsov, known as Victor Kraft (August 8, 1915 – July 2, 1976), was a professional photographer and life-long friend of

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

Early life

Victor Kraft was born Victor Hugo Etler on August 8, 1915, in

Oneonta, New York Oneonta ( ) is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in southern Otsego County, New York, Otsego County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is one of the northernmost cities of the Appalachian Region. According to the 2020 ...

, the son of Samuel Etler (born in New York City) and Bella Kraftsov (emigrated from Alexandrovsk, Russia). Kraft attended Public School 19 and

DeWitt Clinton High School , motto_translation = Without Work Nothing Is Accomplished , image = DeWitt Clinton High School front entrance IMG 7441 HLG.jpg , seal_image = File:Clinton News.JPG , seal_size = 124px , ...

. He was a violinist prodigy and gave concerts as a child, later attending

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely ...

. He studied composition under

Roger Sessions Roger Huntington Sessions (December 28, 1896March 16, 1985) was an American composer, teacher and musicologist. He had initially started his career writing in a neoclassical style, but gradually moved further towards more complex harmonies and ...

. He left music to pursue photography at the urging of

. Kraft and Copland met in 1932, when Kraft was 16 years old, and had a close relationship until Kraft's death in 1976. Copland called Kraft his "pupil, companion, secretary and friend." In 1936, Kraft studied photography at the Santuario de Ocotlan in Tlaxcala and from December 1936 to April 1937 he covered the Spanish Civil War as a photojournalist for

Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He ...

's ''Ce Soir''.

Career

Victor Kraft contributed photographs to prominent publications such as ''

Life Magazine ''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...

'', ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the ...

'', ''Junior Bazaar'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''Look'' and the French art journal '' L'Oeil''. His portraits include, in addition to Aaron Copland, composers and performers of the American music scene, including

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

Paul Bowles Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...

, Edwin Denby,

Lukas Foss Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist, and conductor. Career Born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922, Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons with J ...

, Erik Johns,

William Kapell William Kapell (September 20, 1922October 29, 1953) was an American pianist and recording artist, killed at the age of 31 in the crash of a commercial airliner returning from a concert tour in Australia. Biography William Kapell was born in New ...

, Dmitri Mitropoulos, and Robert Shaw. He also documented the

Tanglewood Music Festival The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Stockbridge and Lenox in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts. The festival consists of a series of concerts, including symphonic music, c ...

in the 1940s. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he studied under

Margaret Bourke-White Margaret Bourke-White (; June 14, 1904 – August 27, 1971), an American photographer and documentary photographer, became arguably best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of Soviet industry under the Soviets' ...

and managed a concert tour for Prince George Chavchavadze. From 1945 to 1947, he worked for ''Harper's Bazaar'', but he did not like it and was fired. Throughout his career as a photographer, Kraft was also paid by Copland to be his secretary and chauffeur, and they lived together at Bernardsville, Ridgefield, Sneden's Landing, Ossining and Cortlandt Manor. They also traveled to Bemidji, Hollywood, Mexico and Cuba. A handsome man, with dark brown hair and blue-gray eyes, Kraft posed for

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the t ...

and Carl Van Vechten.

Personal life

The relationship between Copland and Kraft remained unknown to the general public until Copland's death in 1990. When Leonard Bernstein urged an aging Copland to come out, Copland replied: "I think I'll leave that to you, boy." Victor Kraft traveled in Mexico in the 1930s and in Brazil from 1951 to 1953. In 1951, Kraft married Pearl Kazin, writer and sister of

Alfred Kazin Alfred Kazin (June 5, 1915 – June 5, 1998) was an American writer and literary critic. He wrote often about the immigrant experience in early twentieth century America. Early life Like many other New York Intellectuals, Alfred Kazin was ...

, a literary critic. The marriage lasted a few months. In 1960 Kraft married Rheba Robinson, a nurse. They moved to

Croton-on-Hudson Croton-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 8,327 at the 2020 United States census over 8,070 at the 2010 census. It is located in the town of Cortlandt as part of New York City's northern s ...

and Kraft found a house for Copland in nearby

Cortlandt Manor Cortlandt Manor is a hamlet located in the Town of Cortlandt in northern Westchester County, New York, United States. Cortlandt Manor is situated directly east, north and south of Peekskill, and east of three sections of the Town of Cortlandt, ...

. Copland was the godfather of Kraft's only child, Jeremy Aaron, who was mentally handicapped. Kraft did not accept the situation and in 1968 he left his wife and took Jeremy with him, traveling around the world for eight years. Kraft died of a heart attack on July 2, 1976, and Jeremy returned to live with his mother. When Copland died in 1990, he left $25,000, , to Jeremy's mother, "to be used for the support and maintenance of my godson, Jeremy Aaron Kraft", the largest sum he left to anyone, aside from his secretary, David Walker.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kraft, Victor 1915 births 1976 deaths 20th-century American photographers Bisexual men People from Oneonta, New York DeWitt Clinton High School alumni