The Simmons Voice

Issue date: 10/1/09 Section: Features

Media Credit: Jackie Carlozzi Krulwich poses in Times Square. She has worked for The New York Times for over 30 years.

It's 1966. The Civil Rights Movement is well under way. Anti-war protests are growing in popularity across America. A young girl is sitting alone in a darkened closet, soon to become one of the most respected photographers of her day.

On Sara Krulwich's sixteenth birthday, when an aunt gave her $25, Krulwich went to a photo store where a nice gentlemen helped her assemble her dream, she says.

Consisting of an off-brand enlarger, a fifty-cent Kodak how-to book, bowls and platters for trays, and a candle, her closet soon became a darkroom.

"Without buying anything extra, he somehow made it possible for me to have an entire darkroom, in my closet, in Manhattan, for under twenty-five dollars," says Krulwich.

Krulwich's curiosity took her deep into New York City to photograph from new perspectives, like rooftops, she says.

Something about the adventure of capturing what others could not radiated within her, she says.

In her small high school in New York, Krulwich was co-editor of the school's newspaper and says she always had to fight against the odds of her gender.

"Women were just never expected to be photographers, it was just a man's job," she says.

When Krulwich got to the University of Michigan, she was immediately drawn to The Michigan Daily, a "self-sufficient newspaper" that covered a wide range of stories, she says.

It was the late 1960s and while women did work on the paper, their role was usually small or "short-lived," she says.

Determined to be recognized as a serious photographer, Krulwich did not let anything threaten her credibility.

"You had to set your eyes on the prize, and that's what I did. If you know what you want, you can't allow anything to get in the way of that," she says.

Although Krulwich had been a self-taught photographer since she was sixteen, the practice she got with The Daily helped her perfect her craft, she says.

"Working on the paper did a lot for me. It made me feel really good about myself and my work," Krulwich says. "It was great for my confidence in myself."

All that hard work paid off: by the time she was a sophomore, she was a full time photographer for the paper.

Continued...

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