HISTORY OF YOUSUF KARSH

By Philip Hernandez

About Yousuf Karsh

Yousuf Karsh was a master at portrait photography. Karsh was born in 1908 in Armenia but at the age of 14, he moved to Canada to live with his uncle George Nakash, a photographer. Karsh attended school there briefly and assisted in his uncle’s studio. Karsh showed great talent into photography and was sent to study as an apprentice for John H. Garo, an eminent portrait photographer. Karsh returned to Canada and in 1932 he opened his own studio in Ottawa.

Yousuf Karsh’s Lighting

Karsh was a master in the use of studio lights. One of Karsh’s distinctive practices was lighting the subject’s hands separately. He photographed many of the great and celebrated personalities of his generation. Journalist George Perry wrote in London’s Sunday Times that "when the famous start thinking of immortality, they call for Karsh of Ottawa.”

Winston Churchill

• Sold to Life magazine for only $100• Eventually became the most widely reproduced portrait in the history of photography.• Life magazine subsequently commissioned the photographer to do a similar series of American wartime leaders.• The widely circulated Churchill portrait brought a major change in Karsh's life. No longer did he have to seek out subjects.

Portraits

Betty Low

Peter Lorre

Ernest Hemingway

Portraits

Albert Einstein Audrey Hepburn

Quotes

• “Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera. “

• “There is a brief moment when all there is in a man's mind and soul and spirit is reflected through his eyes, his hands, his attitude. This is the moment to record.”

Work Sided Page• http://www.karsh.org/•http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Karsh_Yousuf.html•http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1842875,00.html•http://www.biography.com/articles/Yousuf-Karsh-9360614•http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/yousufkarsh.html