He was best known for his guerilla filmmaking style and his career-spanning partnership with filmmaker Abel Ferrara, with whom he made more than a dozen films, including The Driller Killer (1979), Bad Lieutenant (1992), Dangerous Game (1993), The Addiction (1995), The Blackout (1997), and Welcome to New York (2014), as well as a segment of the HBO dark comedy drama anthology series Subway Stories (1997).

Kenneth Arthur Kelsch was born in Brooklyn on July 8, 1947, and grew up in East Newark and North Arlington, New Jersey.

He took an early interest in photography: he had his own darkroom at 12 years old and his father showed him how to develop black and white photographs.

Actors he filmed include Danny Aiello, Asia Argento, Patricia Arquette, Seymour Cassel, John Corbett, Gérard Depardieu, Willem Dafoe, Benicio Del Toro, Drea de Matteo, Gérard Depardieu, Minnie Driver, Edie Falco, Danny Glover, Isaac Hayes, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michael Imperioli, Samuel L. Jackson, Allison Janney, Harvey Keitel, Madonna, Vincent Pastore, Chris Penn, Ron Perlman, Christopher Reeve, John Ritter, Isabella Rosellini, Annabella Sciorra, Kyra Sedgwick, Paul Sorvino, David Strathairn, Lili Taylor, Stanley Tucci, Christopher Walken, Sam Waterston and James Woods among others.

[8] Kelsch taught cinematography at Montclair State University, Hofstra and Five Towns College in Long Island.