Portraits of great people. Photographer Yousuf Karsh .

Yousuf Karsh (Born Yousuf Karsh) - ( December 23, 1908 - July 13, 2002 ) - Canadian photographer , one of the masters of portrait photography.

Armenian origin . Karsh was born in the town of Mardin in southeastern Turkey. At the age of 14 with parents Karsh was forced to flee Turkey and settled in

Syria , fleeing the genocide.After 2 years parents sent Yusuf in Canada to his uncle George ( Gregory )

Nagash . Karsh received their education there , working in the studio Nagash . Noticing the photographic talent Yusuf , Nagash sends him to learn from the

portrait photographer John Garo in Boston.After 4 years Karsh returned to Canada. He founded his own studio in downtown

Ottawa . Soon the work of Karsh attract a variety of celebrities , but he reaches the highest popularity in 1941, when shoots portrait of Winston Churchill during the

latter's visit to Ottawa . Of the 100 most notable people of the XX century , according to the International Who's Who ( 2000), Karsh photographed 51.

The Venerable Pope John Paul II (18

May 1920 – 2 April 2005, born Karol Józef Wojtyła)

reigned as Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005. His

was the second-longest documented

pontificate; only Pope Pius IX served longer (St. Peter the Apostle is reputed to have served for more than thirty years as the first pontiff, but

documentation is too sparse to definitively support this). He has been the only Slavic and Polish Pope to date, and was the

first non-Italian Pope since Dutch Pope

Adrian VI in 1522.

Mother Teresa (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, was a Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India in 1950. For over 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Grace Kelly and

Prince Rainie

r

Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American Academy Award-winning actress and Princess consort of Monaco. In April 1956 Kelly married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and became styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and was commonly referred to as Princess Grace

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (April 15, 1894 – September 11, 1971) led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the partial de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the great wartime leaders. He served as prime minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, writer and artist. To date, he is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the first person to be recognised as an honorary citizen of the United States.

Sophia Loren (born Sofia Villani Scicolone;

September 20, 1934) is an Italian actress.[1]

In 1962, she won the Academy Award for Best

Actress for her role in Two Women, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance,she won another 21 awards for that role. Loren has won 50

international awards, including two Oscars, five Golden Globe Awards, a

Grammy Award and a BAFTA Award. Her other films include Attila (1954), The Pride and the Passion (1957), Houseboat (1958), El cid (1961), Yesterday,

Today and Tomorrow (1963), Marriage Italian

Style (1964), A Special Day (1977), Grumpier Old Men (1995), and Nine (2009).

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (March 27, 1886 – August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to and addressed by his surname, Mies, by his colleagues, students, writers, and others.Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, along with Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of Modern architecture

Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American dancer choreographer regarded as one of the foremost pioneers of modern dance, whose influence on dance can be compared to the influence Stravinsky had on music, Picasso had on the visual arts, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture. Graham was a galvanizing performer, a choreographer of astounding productivity and originality. She invented a new language of movement, and used it to reveal the passion, the rage and the ecstasy common to human experience.

Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park. One of his most famous photographs was Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California.With Fred Archer, Adams developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs and the work of those to whom he taught the system.

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish-born painter, draughtsman, and sculptor who lived most of his adult life in France. He is best known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles embodied in his work. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and Guernica (1937), his portrayal of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American author and journalist. His distinctive writing style, characterized by economy and understatement, influenced 20th-century fiction, as did his life of adventure and public image. He produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Hemingway's fiction was successful because the characters he presented exhibited authenticity that resonated with his audience. Many of his works are classics of American literature. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works during his lifetime; a further three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously.

Man Ray (August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976), born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. Best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography, Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media and considered himself a painter above all. He was also a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. He is noted for his photograms, which he renamed "rayographs" after himself.

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American artist. Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe was a major figure in American art from the 1920s. She received widespread recognition for her technical contributions, as well as for challenging the boundaries of modern American artistic style. She is chiefly known for paintings of flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones, and landscapes in which she synthesized abstraction and representation. Her paintings present crisply contoured forms that are replete with subtle tonal transitions of varying colors.

George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays. Nearly all his writings deal sternly with prevailing social problems, but have a vein of comedy to make their stark themes more palatable. Shaw examined education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege.

Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987), known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, author, and member of highly diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy patrons.

Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, playwright, artist and filmmaker. Along with other avant-garde artists of his generation (Jean Anouilh and René Char for example) Cocteau grappled with the "algebra" of verbal codes old and new, mise en scène language and technologies of modernism to create a paradox: a classical avant-garde. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie,María Félix, Édith Piaf (whom he cast in one of his one-act plays entitled Le Bel Indifferent in 1940), and Raymond Radiguet.

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969.

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot (born 28 September 1934)

Marc Chagall (7 July 1887 –

28 March 1985)

Albert Einstein

(n. 14 martie

1879, Ulm - d. 18 aprilie 1955,

Princeton)

Joan Miró i Ferrà (April 20, 1893 –

December 25, 1983; was a

Catalan/Spanish painter,

sculptor, and ceramicist

born in Barcelona.

Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January

14, 1957) was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a

cultural icon. The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the

greatest male star in the history of American cinema.

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often

referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from

1961 until his assassination in 1963.

After his military service as commander of the Motor

Torpedo Boat PT-109 during World War II in the South

Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts's 11th

congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives

from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat, and served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until

1960.

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (July 28, 1929 – May 19,

1994) was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and served as First Lady during his presidency

from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. She was later married to

Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis from 1968 until his death in 1975. For the final two decades of her life, she had a successful career as a book editor. She is remembered for her contributions to the arts and historic preservation, her style and

elegance, and her public stoicism in the wake of President Kennedy's

assassination.

Joan Chandos Baez (born January 9, 1941) is an American folk singer,

songwriter and activist. Baez has a distinctive vocal style, with a strong vibrato. Her

recordings include many topical songs and material dealing with

social issues.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban politician. One of the primary leaders of the Cuban

Revolution, Castro served as the Prime Minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December

1976, and then as the President of the Council of State of Cuba and

the President of Council of Ministers of Cuba until his

resignation from the office in February 2008. He currently

serves as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, a

position he has held since 1965.

Bill Clinton

Jacques -Yves Cousteau - Jacques Cousteau; (11 June 1910 – 25 June 1997) was a

French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the

sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the aqua-lung, pioneered marine conservation

and was a member of the Académie française. He was also

known as "le Commandant Cousteau" or "Captain

Cousteau".

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter,

voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer,

international icon, and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th

century. As the co-founder (with his brother Roy O. Disney) of

Walt Disney Productions, Disney became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation he co-founded, now known as The

Walt Disney Company, today has annual revenues of

approximately U.S. $35 billion.

Born in Ixelles, Belgium as Audrey Kathleen Ruston, Hepburn spent her childhood chiefly in the Netherlands, including German-occupied Arnhem,

Netherlands, during the Second World War. She studied ballet in Arnhem and then moved to London in 1948, where

she continued to train in ballet and worked as a photographer's model. She

appeared in several European films before starring in the 1951 Broadway

play Gigi. Hepburn played the lead female role in Roman Holiday (1953),

winning an Academy Award, a Golden Globe.

Hepburn became one of the most successful film actresses in the world and performed with notable leading men such

as Gregory Peck, Rex Harrison, Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, William Holden,

Burt Lancaster, Fred Astaire, James Garner, Peter O'Toole and Albert Finney.

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, who chose to be known as Le Corbusier (October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965), was a Swiss architect, designer, urbanist, writer and also painter, who is famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called Modern architecture or the International style. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in his thirties.

Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art.

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an internationally prominent author, speaker, politician, and activist for the New Deal coalition. She worked to enhance the status of working women, although she opposed the Equal Rights Amendment because she believed it would adversely affect women.

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen while remaining a British subject.

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, (22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered British actors of the 20th century. He married Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh and Joan Plowright.

Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, (born 27 February

1932), also known as Liz Taylor, is an English-American

actress. She is known for her acting talent and beauty, as well

as her Hollywood lifestyle, including many marriages.

Taylor is considered one of the great actresses of

Hollywood's golden age.

Ingrid Bergman (29 August 1915 – 29 August

1982) was a Swedish actress noted for her

starring roles in American films. She won

three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and

the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked

as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all

time by the American Film Institute.

She is best remembered for her role as Ilsa Lund in

Casablanca (1942), a World War II drama co-

starring Humphrey Bogart.

YOUSUF KARSHYousuf Karsh (1908-2002) is one of

the masters of 20th century photography.  His body of work includes portraits of statesmen,

artists, musicians, authors, scientists, and men and women of

accomplishment.  His extraordinary and unique portfolio presents the

viewer with an intimate and compassionate view of humanity.Created: Rodica Stătescu

Source: INTERNET