DANIEL KRAMER (died 2024)
Daniel Kramer was mentored by W. Eugene Smith and Philippe Halsman and became a dedicated photojournalist whose work appeared in LIFE, TIME, and Rolling Stone. In 1964, Kramer saw Bob Dylan perform on the Steve Allen show and later that year met and photographed Dylan in Woodstock. After seeing the initial portraits, Dylan invited Kramer on the road and asked him to continue photographing him. As Kramer said, “A good photographer, a good writer, a good historian always says yes. So I said yes.”
Kramer would later photograph the album covers for "Bringing It All Back Home" and "Highway 61 Revisited" in 1965 and his well-known book, Bob Dylan: A Portrait Of The Artist's Early Years was published in 1991 and was the first major book about Dylan.
Kramer’s photographs have been exhibited by or are included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, The International Center of Photography, and The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City; the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York; The National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC; The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio; and the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
His numerous awards include a Gold Medal from the Art Director’s Club of Washington DC, awards from the Art Director’s Club of New York, a Publisher’s Design Silver Award, The Creativity Award, a nomination by the Music Journalism Awards, a Bronze Medal from the Atlanta Film Festival for documentary film. Kramer also received a Grammy nomination for the Bob Dylan album cover “Bringing It All Back Home”, which was also chosen by Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly magazines as one of the 100 greatest album covers of all time.
Daniel Kramer lectured or conducted workshops in New York City at The School of Visual Arts, The Cooper Union, The International Center of Photography and Columbia University School of Journalism. He served as Vice President of the American Society of Media Photographers, and on their national Board of Directors for fifteen years working to foster copyright protection for photographers. Kramer worked closely with his wife, Arline Cunningham Kramer, and died in New York in 2024.