Sarah Krulwich

Sarah Krulwich’s career is a great example of how, even through adversity, one can achieve something remarkably significant and completely unexpected. After picking up a book on how to develop photographs, Sarah Krulwich became the first female photographer on her college newspaper. She was not particularly interested in photography, but she had a camera, and they needed a photographer.

By her second year on the newspaper she gained enough seniority to have calim an exclusive pass that let her photograph on the actual sidelines of the football field. The problem was that it was also against school policy to allow women on the football field. After a tense encounter with the men on the field she skyrocketed to fame for refusing to back down.

From then on her life has revolved around photojournalism and a handful of moments where she was the first female photographer to do something. She started off taking photographs of sporting events and eventually gained enough recognition to take photos of the New York Times. Even though she says she did not know anything about the sports themselves she was able to learn on the job by timing her shots split seconds before things happened, firing off as many shots as she could. In this way she was able to get the shots she needed and solidify her place in the world of photojournalism. She also explains how she was able to get quirky, or interesting photographs because of the fact that she did not know how the sports were played and therefore was positioned to take certain photographs that other sport photographers missed. This made her photographs stand out from the rest of the crowd. She explained how most people around her treated her poorly because she was a woman taking photographs of sporting events, but this did not deter her from advancing her career.

She eventually went from the first woman photographer in her college newspaper to one of the first photographers ever to gain inside access on a consistent basis to New York’s theater, opera, and dance. Her experience as a sports photographer allowed her to get the shots that no one else could. She would take pictures of active and energetic moments during performances; instead of the happy still shots that were usually sent out to newspapers before a production opened.

Sometimes the smallest things, like a little book on photography, can change someone’s entire life.