Shot by Scott

Yousuf or Josuf (his given Armenian name was Hovsep) Karsh was born in Mardin, a city in the eastern Ottoman Empire (present Turkey). He grew up during the Armenian Genocide where he wrote, “I saw relatives massacred; my sister died of starvation as we were driven from village to village.” At the age of 16, his parents sent Yousuf to live with his uncle George Nakash, a photographer in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Karsh briefly attended school there and assisted in his uncle’s studio. Nakash saw great potential in his nephew and in 1928 arranged for Karsh to apprentice with portrait photographer John Garo in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. His brother, Malak Karsh, was also a photographer famous for the image of logs floating down the river on the Canadian one dollar bill.

He immigrated to Canada in 1924 at the age of sixteen, where he lived with his uncle, a photographer in  Sherbrooke, Quebec.  He went to school there and worked for his uncle who in return trained him in photography. At his uncle’s recommendation, in 1928 he apprenticed in the Boston studio of photographer John Garo, who taught him to see his subject in terms of light, shadow, and form.  These three elements would become key in Karsh’s practice. His entire career he favoured dramatic lighting in which light is the photographer’s favourite device. In 1932 he settled in Ottawa where he opened his photography studio. He became friends with certain Canadian politicians who allowed him to meet and photograph several political personalities of the time.

I especially love the photo of Einstein, in this photo you can see that the lighting is in front and slightly off to the side of the subject, whilst another light is from the right lighting up his hands. This creates a great range on tones and adds depth to the image.

At age thirty-three he immortalised Sir Winston Churchill on film. This portrait is surely Karsh’s best-known photograph and the one most reproduced in history. The back lighting that shapes the face accentuates the famous politician’s expression while conferring upon him strength, power and intelligence.

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Publications

• Faces of destiny; portraits by Karsh (1946)
• Canada: as seen by the camera of Yousuf Karsh and described in words by John Fisher (1960)
• In search of greatness; reflections of Yousuf Karsh (1962)
• Karsh portfolio (1967)
• portraits by Karsh (1968)
• Faces of Our Time (1971)
• Karsh portraits (1976)
• Karsh Canadians (1978)
• Karsh: a fifty-year retrospective (1983)
• Karsh: American legends (1992)
• Portrait in Light and Shadow: the Life of Yousuf Karsh (2007)
• “Karsh 100: A Biography in Images” (MFA Publications, 2004)