Keppler, Victor (1904-87), American advertising photographer. Born into a New York immigrant family, Keppler embraced photography early and in his teens improvised a commercial darkroom in a coal cellar. After assisting the Japanese-American photographer Robert Waida, he became independent in the booming mid-1920s, eventually working with America's largest agencies—most notably BBDO—and corporations. He made his debut with deceptively simple table-top arrangements, but later mastered studio set-ups of Hollywood-like complexity and, in the 1950s, location shoots that mimicked photojournalism. This versatility, and a legendary flair for problem solving, made him one of advertising's most sought-after photographers, flourishing during the Depression and reaching a pinnacle of success after 1945. (During the Second World War he designed propaganda posters for the US Treasury.) A tireless innovator, Keppler enthusiastically embraced the technical and business changes that took place during his career, including the commercial use of colour, the advent of electronic flash, the corporate identity cult, and the opportunities offered by television. After leaving advertising in 1961 he headed a distance-learning establishment, the Famous Photographers School. He published a technical manual, The Eighth Art: A Life of Color Photography (1938), and an illuminating autobiography, Man + Camera (1970).
— Robin Lenman
