Jay Kay Klein
If you have been going to sf cons for more than a handful of years you have probably been blinded now and then by the photoflashes of the World’s Number One Fan Photographer, Jay Kay Klein.
It’s our sad duty to say that won’t happen any more, because on May 13, Jay Kay passed away. He had known it was coming for some time, and last winter said good-bye to those he loved and checked himself into a final care facility, asking all his friends not to try to communicate with him any \more. His enormous collection of photographs, taken at scores of world and other cons over the years, he left to the University of California, Riverside Libraries Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy, which will make them available for research eventually.
And I must add, as a personal note of gratitude, that when already long ill but not yet preparing to die, he gave me permission to use several dozen of his photos for this blog and the books that will follow.
Stefan Jones says:
I remember being amazed, when reading LOCUS in the 1980s, how many of the photos of pros were by one guy.
Klein was a guest for at least one I-Con, the campus convention my friends ran. It was nice to see the face of the guy behind all of those pictures. He looked just a little older than he does in the photo above. He had his camera with him, of course!
July 1, 2012, 7:14 pm