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• Issue #250
• Article

By Alex Novak

Louis Klaitman

Louis Klaitman, a longtime photo dealer based in Berkeley, CA, passed away on March 28th from heart congestion due to complications from an earlier stroke.

Klaitman originally had a novelties business in Baltimore, MD, but about 30 years ago he became interested in photography, first as a collector and then as a dealer. He later moved to California after he sold his original business. Before he had moved to California, he had partnered with his friend Dr. Bernard Liberman in a company called Louis/Bernard Fine Art Photography. Later he worked alone, but often splitting booths with fellow dealers like San Francisco photo dealer Robert Tat. Klaitman was a fixture at the West Coast photo fairs, such as Photo LA and Photo SF, specializing in Horst photographs. Louis leaves behind his wife of many years Supannika.

I knew Louis for most of the time he was in photography. He was a dear friend, and we would keep in touch by phone over the last few years after his stroke. It was difficult for him to speak, but for a while he seemed to be making progress, although I could tell he was frustrated with the slow pace. He was truly one of the nicest people that I've had the pleasure to become friends with through photography.

Novak has over 48 years experience in the photography-collecting arena. He is a long-time member and formally board member of the Daguerreian Society, and, when it was still functioning, he was a member of the American Photographic Historical Society (APHS). He organized the 2016 19th-century Photography Show and Conference for the Daguerreian Society. He is also a long-time member of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, or AIPAD. Novak has been a member of the board of the nonprofit Photo Review, which publishes both the Photo Review and the Photograph Collector, and is currently on the Photo Review's advisory board. He was a founding member of the Getty Museum Photography Council. He is author of French 19th-Century Master Photographers: Life into Art.

Novak has had photography articles and columns published in several newspapers, the American Photographic Historical Society newsletter, the Photograph Collector and the Daguerreian Society newsletter. He writes and publishes the E-Photo Newsletter, the largest circulation newsletter in the field. Novak is also president and owner of Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, a private photography dealer, which sells by appointment and has sold at exhibit shows, such as AIPAD New York and Miami, Art Chicago, Classic Photography LA, Photo LA, Paris Photo, The 19th-century Photography Show, Art Miami, etc.