Tony Licosati
Goyette
Digital Photo Essay
6 October 2015
Life and Legacy of Yousuf Karsh Yousuf Karsh was an Armenian–Canadian portrait photographer who lived from December 23, 1908 to July 13, 2002. He is said to be "one of the greatest portrait photographers of the twentieth century, who achieved a distinct style in his theatrical lighting". Yousuf Karsh was born in Mardin, a city in east Turkey. He grew up during the Armenian Genocide, witch was when the Ottoman Government was trying to get rid of the Armenian minorities in their Empire during World War I. When he turned sixteen, his parents sent him to Quebec, Canada to live with his Uncle, George Nakash, who would later help Yousuf learn to take pictures. After living with his uncle for …show more content…
He photographed almost all of the greats of his generation. Throughout most of his career he used the 8×10 bellows Calumet camera, made circa 1940 in Chicago. It was written that "when the famous start thinking of immortality, they call for Karsh of Ottawa." Karsh had a gift for capturing the essence of his subject in the instant of his portrait. Karsh wrote that "Within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can. The revelation, if it comes at all, will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture, a gleam of the eye, a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world. In that fleeting interval of opportunity the photographer must act or lose his prize. My chief joy is to photograph the great in heart, in mind, and in spirit, whether they be famous or humble." His work is in permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, New York's Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, Bibliotheque nationale de France, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the National Portrait Gallery of Australia and many others. His photographic equipment was donated to the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. Some famous subjects photographed by Karsh were Muhammad Ali, Marian Anderson, Joan Baez, Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, Humphrey Bogart, Alexander Calder, Fidel Castro, Winston Churchill, Joan Crawford, Ruth Draper, Albert Einstein, Dwight Eisenhower, Princess Elizabeth, Robert Frost, Indira Gandhi, Ernest Hemingway, Audrey Hepburn, Pope John Paul II, Carl Jung, Helen Keller and Polly Thompson, Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, The Marx Brothers, Pandit Nehru, Georgia O'Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Pope Pius XII, Prince Rainier of Monaco, Paul Robeson, the rock band Rush, George Bernard Shaw, Jean Sibelius,
Goyette
Digital Photo Essay
6 October 2015
Life and Legacy of Yousuf Karsh Yousuf Karsh was an Armenian–Canadian portrait photographer who lived from December 23, 1908 to July 13, 2002. He is said to be "one of the greatest portrait photographers of the twentieth century, who achieved a distinct style in his theatrical lighting". Yousuf Karsh was born in Mardin, a city in east Turkey. He grew up during the Armenian Genocide, witch was when the Ottoman Government was trying to get rid of the Armenian minorities in their Empire during World War I. When he turned sixteen, his parents sent him to Quebec, Canada to live with his Uncle, George Nakash, who would later help Yousuf learn to take pictures. After living with his uncle for …show more content…
He photographed almost all of the greats of his generation. Throughout most of his career he used the 8×10 bellows Calumet camera, made circa 1940 in Chicago. It was written that "when the famous start thinking of immortality, they call for Karsh of Ottawa." Karsh had a gift for capturing the essence of his subject in the instant of his portrait. Karsh wrote that "Within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can. The revelation, if it comes at all, will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture, a gleam of the eye, a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world. In that fleeting interval of opportunity the photographer must act or lose his prize. My chief joy is to photograph the great in heart, in mind, and in spirit, whether they be famous or humble." His work is in permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, New York's Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, Bibliotheque nationale de France, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the National Portrait Gallery of Australia and many others. His photographic equipment was donated to the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. Some famous subjects photographed by Karsh were Muhammad Ali, Marian Anderson, Joan Baez, Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, Humphrey Bogart, Alexander Calder, Fidel Castro, Winston Churchill, Joan Crawford, Ruth Draper, Albert Einstein, Dwight Eisenhower, Princess Elizabeth, Robert Frost, Indira Gandhi, Ernest Hemingway, Audrey Hepburn, Pope John Paul II, Carl Jung, Helen Keller and Polly Thompson, Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, The Marx Brothers, Pandit Nehru, Georgia O'Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Pope Pius XII, Prince Rainier of Monaco, Paul Robeson, the rock band Rush, George Bernard Shaw, Jean Sibelius,