A banker by profession, Kurtz began flying as a teenager and soloed when he was 16. In 2002, Kurtz combined an interest in photography with his love of aircraft. Since then, he has taken about 20,000 photos. He had the good fortune to be at London Heathrow for the last week of flights by British Airways Concorde aircraft. Also, he was able to get a variety of photos of the 'Spirit of Delta', the 767 donated to Delta Airlines in 1982 by its employees, prior to its retirement in 2006.

Commercial jets are still the primary interest of Kurtz, but a recent military airshow featuring the Blue Angels and vintage military aircraft caught his interest as well.