Victor Kraft

Victor Hugo Etler Kraftsov, known as Victor Kraft (August 8, 1915 – July 2, 1976), was an American professional photographer and lifelong friend and lover of Aaron Copland.

Early life Victor Kraft was born Victor Hugo Etler on August 8, 1915, in Oneonta, New York, the son of Samuel Etler (born in New York City) and Bella Kraftsov (emigrated from Alexandrovsk, Russia).

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's Ce Soir.

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, a literary critic. The marriage lasted a few months. In 1960 Kraft married Rheba Robinson, a nurse. They moved to Croton-on-Hudson and Kraft found a house for Copland in nearby Cortlandt Manor. 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.