Kenneth Arthur Kelsch (July 8, 1947 – December 11, 2023) was an American cinematographer, teacher, and Vietnam veteran. He was best known for his guerilla filmmaking style and his career-spanning partnership with cult genre director Abel Ferrara, with whom he made more than 15 films.
Kenneth Arthur Kelsch was born in Brooklyn on July 8, 1947, and grew up in East Newark and North Arlington, New Jersey.[1] His mother was born in Scotland and his father was born in the Alsace region of France.[2] He was raised Catholic. He took an early interest in photography: he had his own darkroom at 12 years old and his father showed him how to develop black and white photographs. While still in high school, his father died while Kelsch had been attending his first week of seminary and his mother was two weeks pregnant.[3]
He studied photography at Montclair State College and New York University's Film & Television program.[4]
Military life
Kelsch attended Rutgers University for a year and enlisted in the army in 1966. As a Green Beret, he was the executive officer of an A-team during the Vietnam War and participated in SLAM (Search, Locate, Annihilate, and Monitor) operations in Laos[2] and CIA led cross-border operations in Cambodia.[4][5]
Kelsch had four children, one of whom died before him.[1] His second wife was his assistant at NYU. On December 11, 2023, he died of COVID-19 and pneumonia at a hospital in Hackettstown, New Jersey, at the age of 76.[2][7]