Karsh


Karsh_Giacometti_Alberto_02.jpg"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."

Yousuf Karsh made more than 15,000 sittings across six decades. This feature is but a small selection of the artists he photographed.

There is lots of information and images on the official Karsh website, it's great value so I recommend a long visit.


View the full screen magazine photo feature.

Alberto Giacometti, 1965 © Yousuf Karsh
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Karsh_Mubarak_Hosni_03.jpgIt's not all Audrey Hepburn and Helen Keller over here at the Karsh satellite archives - we've got plenty of controversial figures in the files. As protests in Egypt continue into their second year, here is ex-President Hosni Mubarak, photographed by Yousuf Karsh in 1983.










Hosni Mubarak © Yousuf Karsh
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Karsh_Ali_Muhammad_04.jpgOn Muhammad Ali's 70th birthday, an opportunity to publish a couple more Karsh photos from their session in 1970.

And because a Karsh story is always worth repeating:

"Muhammad Ali arrived at my New York studio with a breathless young editor trailing behind. They had jogged together from the 'Look' offices, the young editor carrying Ali's heavy portable telephone which Ali said kept him in "constant contact with the world." Since the editor was a slight young man, I smiled to myself as I imagined this improbable duo and the incredulous stares of the passers-by as they made their way up Madison Avenue."


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Muhammad Ali, 1970 © Yousuf Karsh
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Karsh_QE2_Colour.jpg2012 is a big year for the Brits. Queen Elizabeth will be celebrating her Diamond Jubilee - here is one of the many photographs Mr Karsh took at four separate sessions across four decades.

"Official portrait of British monarch HM Queen Elizabeth II pictured at Buckingham Palace wearing the mantle and Star of the Order of the Garter. This 40th birthday picture was officially released on February 8th, 1966."

It is also the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens so there's probably not much else on TV this year other than stateliness and period drama.

Queen Elizabeth II birthday portrait, 1966 © Yousuf Karsh
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karsh_rev_graham_04.jpgContrary to a news report by Charlotte, North Carolina's WBTV this weekend, Billy Graham is not dead. The 93 year-old reverend is hospitalized with pneumonia. According to Wikipedia, including Obama, Billy Graham has now personally met with twelve US presidents, the same number that Mr Karsh photographed during his career.

Looking through a Google image search on the rev, you can't deny he's always had pretty amazing hair.




Reverend Billy Graham, 1972 © Yousuf Karsh
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Karsh_01_Hemingway_NewYorker.jpgThe cover of the December 5th, 2011 issue of The New Yorker features a bookstore selling more merchandise than books. Notice on the left a row of handbags, one of which is the Yousuf Karsh portrait of Ernest Hemingway. Much purloined over the years, he's been discovered on bottles of rum, T shirts, restaurant menus, and even iPad apps. Long live Ernest Hemingway.


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"I expected to meet in the author a composite of the heroes of his novels. Instead, in 1957, at his home Finca Vigía, near Havana, I found a man of peculiar gentleness, the shyest man I ever photographed - a man cruelly battered by life, but seemingly invincible. He was still suffering from the effects of a plane accident that occurred during his fourth safari to Africa. I had gone the evening before to La Floridita, Hemingway's favorite bar, to do my "homework" and sample his favorite concoction, the daiquiri. But one can be overprepared! When, at nine the next morning, Hemingway called from the kitchen, "What will you have to drink?" my reply was, I thought, letter-perfect: "Daiquiri, sir." "Good God, Karsh," Hemingway remonstrated, "at this hour of the day!""

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02_Karsh_Tattoo.jpg Like a cat bringing a mouse to its owner, a tattooist in England reported this rendering of a self-portrait by Mr. Karsh to our curator. The gentleman doesn't know quite how he found the image, nor did he know who it was until recently, but had "managed to convince one of my friends to have the portrait"... we don't know where. The big joke among my Karsh colleagues is how I plan to handle this copyright infringement.


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Karsh_Smallwood_Joseph_1949.jpgI love to publish Karsh in my blog but hate to bore anyone by over-doing it. So I publish when something presents itself. In a classic Karsh pose, this is Joseph Roberts "Joey" Smallwood, a controversial character who was ultimately responsible for bringing Newfoundland into the Canadian confederation in 1948, becoming its first premiere* in 1949, the same year in which he was Karshed.


*tautology?



Joseph Smallwood, 1949 © Yousuf Karsh
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Karsh_Marian_Beamish.jpgLife at the Karsh archive is always fascinating, entertaining and enlightening. I was contacted recently by a woman who shared the story of her mother's sitting with Mr. Karsh.

"It would have been late '30's, early '40's - from his Sparks St. Mall studio. She used to tell us this great story about it. She had booked the appointment and it was pouring rain out, so she wore a raincoat with a hood to protect her hairdo. When she walked in, Karsh stopped her and said, "Don't move! I'm going to take your photo just like that!" But she had saved up all her money for a professional portrait, so she pooh-poohed that idea and took the raincoat off. The portrait is lovely, but she regretted her haste in later years, and thought it would have made a really interesting photograph with the raindrops glistening on her hood."

Marian Beamish by Yousuf Karsh. Thanks to Mary Pal for sharing her story.
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Karsh_Kennedy_Jackie_1957.jpgI first heard about the impending release of the Jackie Kennedy tapes a few weeks ago when a tabloid called looking for Karsh photographs to illustrate an article. I declined and forgot about it until the tapes started to hit the news and I found myself listening agog.

Yousuf Karsh photographed Mrs Kennedy in 1957, and here is his story:

"Widowhood and adversity had not yet touched the glamorous young wife of the handsome Senator from Massachusetts. Our meeting was at Hammersmith, her mother's home in Newport. I photographed her against a Coromandel screen that complemented her dark beauty. Weeks later, in New York, she saw me walking down Fifth Avenue and rushed toward me to inquire breathlessly about her photographs. Our last meeting was shortly before her untimely death, when she came to my exhibition 'American Legends.' She stood alone at the entrance, her quiet presence penetrating the crowd."

Jacqueline Kennedy, 1957 © Yousuf Karsh
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