Hello! I’m Kelsey. I make documentaries for Iowa PBS. Before that I spent a decade as a photojournalist and photo editor for the Des Moines Register.
In 2023 I was co-director of Shift: The RAGBRAI Documentary, an hour-long film honoring the 50th anniversary of the oldest, longest and largest bike ride in the world.
I’ve earned three regional Emmys for my work at the paper. The first for a short documentary about the Girl Scout’s Camp Tahigwa in northeast Iowa, the second about Iowa Governor Kim Reynold’s historic run to become the first woman elected to the state’s highest office. The third, a feature on the tradition of presidential campaigning at the Iowa State Fair.
While at the Register I’ve traveled all over the state and half-way around the world sharing stories about Iowans.
I served as the Register’s chief politics photographer, focused on coverage of the 2020 Iowa Caucuses, from January 2019 – February 2020.
In 2017, I was the recipient of a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting allowing myself and a reporter to travel to China for two and a half weeks to report on Iowa’s outsized connection to the country, including spending time with former Iowa Governor and Ambassador to China Terry Branstad.
For one week each summer I teach photography and videography at Media Now, a summer camp for high school journalists at Drake University, in Des Moines.
I am an Iowa native and proud graduate of Iowa State University’s Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. I spend my free time perfecting my Instagram account, my Saturdays cheering for the Cyclones and my vacation time finding excuses to be outside.
Kelsey Kremer 