Photo Corners headlinesarchivemikepasini.com
A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R
Enhancing the enjoyment of taking pictures with news that matters, features that entertain and images that delight. Published frequently.
Remembering Carol Kitman
19 March 2026
Carol Kitman, who documented the Vindman twins for decades through their childhoods into adulthood, has died at the age of 93.
Kidman was born Carolyne Sibushnik in Brooklyn, to Jewish parents who had immigrated from Eastern Europe as children. Her father ran a food import business while her mother took care of the home.
In 1948 she met Marvin Kitman while they were both working summer jobs at Macy's in Manhattan. They married in 1951 and had three children. Marvin passed away in 2023.
She worked as a substitute teach in the 1950s and 1960s after gaduated from Brooklyn College in 1952. In 1971, she received a master's degree in psychology from the City College of New York. She became a counselor at an alcohol recovery center where her patients included John Cheever and Truman Capote.
Her husband had been interested in photography before embarking on a career as a TV critic and syndicated columnist. In the 1960s, Carol Kitman tried her hand at it, becoming proficient enough by 1975 to leave the recovery center and work full-time as a freelance photographer, primarily shooting for local newspapers.
In 1980 she took her camera to the Brighton Beach neighborhood to capture images of its lively immigrant community when she noticed the Vindman brothers wearing matching blue sailor suits.
The twins had only recently arrived in the U.S. after their mother died of cancer in the Ukraine. Their grandmother was looking after them. She spoke Yiddish to them and Kitman struck up a conversation with her. She took photos of the boys the rest of the day as they played in the neighborhood.
But it occurred to her to follow them beyond one day. Through their lives. Her own mother had been brought to the U.S. at age three or four after her mother had died in Poland. "So their having lost their mother really resonated," Kitman once explained.
They turned out to be more than photographic subjects, however. She invited them into her own life and home in New Jersey for parties and holidays. And she and her camera attended all their events, including graduations, weddings and promotions through the ranks of the U.S. Army. Both became lieutenant colonels.
And if the name Vindman rings a bell, that may be because in 2020, they testified in separate hearings about President Trump's pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden.
Alexander Vindman testified to a phone call between Trump and Zelensky in which Trump demanded the investigation. Eugene Vindman, a lawyer for the council, testified he had raised legal questions about the pressure campaign. Those hearings led to Trump's first impeachment. Consequently, both brothers retired from the military in 2020 after becoming the targets of retaliation by the White House.
In 2024 Eugene Vindman won election to the House of Representatives from Virginia and is now running for re-election. Alexander Vindman is running for the Senate in Florida.
In 2019 Kitman observed of the twins, "When you talk about what good immigrants do, look at what these immigrants are doing for this country."
Alex Vindman remembered her in a tweet:
Carol Kitman was an amazing person. In 1980 -- just months after our arrival to the U.S., as refugees from the Soviet Union -- she all but adopted me and Eugene and remained part of our lives for nearly 50 years. She and her wonderful husband Marvin were there at all of our major life events. They were precious to the entire Vindman family. We loved them and Carol will be very missed. May her memory be a blessing.
"May her memory be a blessing" (zichronah livrachah) is a traditional Jewish phrase of condolence, honoring the deceased by focusing on the positive impact of their life and legacy. It implies that recalling her memory brings comfort, inspiration and goodness to the living.
Zichronah livrachah.