Today I introduce a new concept with this Blog. I have been up to my arse in alligators busy for the past year and I am still busy, but now this busyness is focusing in on building my professional identity as a photographer. As I catch up the backlog, I am devoting more time to fleshing out my website and as I do so I will keep this Blog current so that the two venues may work together.
In order to keep these sites informative and interesting I have come up with a few concepts, one of which is an on-going series of short biographical essays regarding photographers I admire. This first installment pays homage to Yousef Karsh.
In order to keep these sites informative and interesting I have come up with a few concepts, one of which is an on-going series of short biographical essays regarding photographers I admire. This first installment pays homage to Yousef Karsh.
YOUSUF KARSH
Yousuf Karsh was born in Armenia (Turkey) in 1908. At the age of fourteen his family moved to Syria, two years later Yousuf was sent to Canada to live with his Uncle George Nakash. George was a photographer and recognized potential in the young man, so he arranged an apprenticeship for Yousuf in Boston, Massachusetts with the photographer John Garo. After a four year apprenticeship Karsh returned to Ottawa, Canada, where he set up a portrait studio in the Chateau Laurier, a prominent hotel close to the Canadian Parliament.
MacKenzie King, then Prime Minister of Canada, who especially liked Karsh and his photographic work, commenced to arrange portraits between Karsh and visiting dignitaries. On December 30, 1941, Karsh took a photo of a defiant Winston Churchill, “The Roaring Lion” capitulated Karsh to worldwide fame, this photo in fact is claimed to be the most reproduced portrait ever photographed.
In the year 2000 edition of The International Who’s Who, which celebrated the 100 most notable people of the previous century, Yousuf Karsh was the only Canadian entry. Of the one hundred people listed, Yousuf had photographed fifty-one of them, testament to his profound success as a portrait photographer.
In the late 1990’s Yousuf, with his wife Estrellita, moved back to Boston, where he died on July 13, 2002 of complications following surgery. His body was returned to Canada and is interred at Ottawa’s Notre Dame Cemetery.
When I see a photograph taken by Karsh it is quickly recognizable, a result of his style and his distinctive personal aesthetic. Karsh was a humble man who was able to capture in the fleeting moment the person behind the public mask - his portraits capture a snippet of the sitters personality that can only be found in very brief moments, even with co-operative, willing subjects.
Most of Karsh’s work is printed at large sizes, and as portraiture displays the tonal range and contrast supremacy that one sees in Ansel Adams’ landscapes, complete mastery of light and shadow. Such excellence is never happenstance, and in Yousuf’s case it has much to do with his understanding and use of studio lighting.
The excellent photo craft of Yousuf Karsh is inspirational and if in my lifetime I can attain a consistency in negative, print, and subject such as Karsh exemplified, I will die a satisfied artist.
MacKenzie King, then Prime Minister of Canada, who especially liked Karsh and his photographic work, commenced to arrange portraits between Karsh and visiting dignitaries. On December 30, 1941, Karsh took a photo of a defiant Winston Churchill, “The Roaring Lion” capitulated Karsh to worldwide fame, this photo in fact is claimed to be the most reproduced portrait ever photographed.
In the year 2000 edition of The International Who’s Who, which celebrated the 100 most notable people of the previous century, Yousuf Karsh was the only Canadian entry. Of the one hundred people listed, Yousuf had photographed fifty-one of them, testament to his profound success as a portrait photographer.
In the late 1990’s Yousuf, with his wife Estrellita, moved back to Boston, where he died on July 13, 2002 of complications following surgery. His body was returned to Canada and is interred at Ottawa’s Notre Dame Cemetery.
When I see a photograph taken by Karsh it is quickly recognizable, a result of his style and his distinctive personal aesthetic. Karsh was a humble man who was able to capture in the fleeting moment the person behind the public mask - his portraits capture a snippet of the sitters personality that can only be found in very brief moments, even with co-operative, willing subjects.
Most of Karsh’s work is printed at large sizes, and as portraiture displays the tonal range and contrast supremacy that one sees in Ansel Adams’ landscapes, complete mastery of light and shadow. Such excellence is never happenstance, and in Yousuf’s case it has much to do with his understanding and use of studio lighting.
The excellent photo craft of Yousuf Karsh is inspirational and if in my lifetime I can attain a consistency in negative, print, and subject such as Karsh exemplified, I will die a satisfied artist.
Yousuf Karsh examines a 10X8 negative in this famous self-portrait.
Yousuf Karsh was an amazing man and photographer, though he has passed, the official Yousuf Karsh website will enrich and inspire you. Check it out:
LINK
Click Here for http://www.karsh.org/#/home/
