Victor Kraft

Victor Hugo Etler Kraftsov, who performed and worked professionally under the name Victor Kraft, was born on August 8, 1915, in Oneonta, New York, to Samuel Etler, a New York City native, and Bella Kraftsov, an emigrant from Alexandrovsk, Russia. He received his early education at Public School 19 and DeWitt Clinton High School. A violin prodigy, Kraft performed concerts as a child and went on to study at the Juilliard School, where he studied composition under Roger Sessions. He later abandoned music for photography at the encouragement of Aaron Copland.

Kraft appeared on Broadway in 1935 in Weep for the Virgins. His connection to Copland, which began in 1932 when Kraft was sixteen years old, shaped much of his subsequent life and career. Copland described Kraft as his pupil, companion, secretary, and friend, and the two remained closely associated until Kraft's death in 1976. Kraft was employed by Copland as a secretary and chauffeur throughout his career, and the two lived together at various residences including Bernardsville, Ridgefield, Sneden's Landing, Ossining, and Cortlandt Manor, and traveled together to locations including Bemidji, Hollywood, Mexico, and Cuba.

In 1936, Kraft studied photography at the Santuario de Ocotlan in Tlaxcala, and from December 1936 through April 1937 he worked as a photojournalist covering the Spanish Civil War for Louis Aragon's French newspaper Ce Soir. During World War II he studied under photographer Margaret Bourke-White and also managed a concert tour for Prince George Chavchavadze. From 1945 to 1947 he held a position at Harper's Bazaar, which ended when he was fired.

Over the course of his photographic career, Kraft contributed work to publications including Life Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, Junior Bazaar, The New York Times, Look, and the French art journal L'Oeil. His portrait subjects included Aaron Copland as well as a range of figures from the American music world: Leonard Bernstein, Paul Bowles, Edwin Denby, Lukas Foss, Erik Johns, William Kapell, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Robert Shaw. He also documented the Tanglewood Music Festival during the 1940s. As a subject himself, Kraft was photographed by George Platt Lynes, Cecil Beaton, and Carl Van Vechten.

Kraft traveled in Mexico during the 1930s and in Brazil from 1951 to 1953. In 1951 he married Pearl Kazin, a writer and sister of literary critic Alfred Kazin; the marriage lasted only a few months. In 1960 he married Rheba Robinson, a nurse, and the couple settled in Croton-on-Hudson. Kraft located a house for Copland in the nearby community of Cortlandt Manor. The couple had one child, Jeremy Aaron, who was mentally handicapped and for whom Copland served as godfather. In 1968 Kraft left his wife and traveled with Jeremy for approximately eight years. The nature of Kraft's relationship with Copland remained unknown to the general public until Copland's death in 1990. When Copland died, he left twenty-five thousand dollars to Jeremy's mother specifically for Jeremy's support and maintenance, the largest bequest he made to any individual aside from his secretary, David Walker.

Victor Kraft died of a heart attack on July 2, 1976. Following his death, Jeremy returned to live with his mother.