Jill Krementz

Who is Jill Krementz?

Jill Krementz is a photographer and author. She has published some 31 books, mostly of photography and children's books.

Krementz grew up in Morristown, New Jersey, and moved to New York City in her late teens. She got a Nikon camera as a birthday present when she became 21. As to working as a photo reporter, she built a life on it. In the 1960s she worked as a photographer for the New York Herald-Tribune. With her color shot of the "March on the Pentagon" she made the cover photo in the The New York Times magazine. She spent a year taking photographs in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Krementz later specialized in the photographing of writers. A major profile of her - written by Dorothy Gelatt - was published in the Spring 1975 issue of 35mm Photography. 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 made in black and white and she is described as working with a minimum of photographic equipment 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...".