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FROM ELIZABETH TAYLOR TO ANDY WARHOL: CAPTURING THE FAMOUS FACES OF THE 20TH CENTURY
Slate Magazine
Oct 29 2013
the 20th Century
By Sarah Moroz
Copyright Estate of Yousuf Karsh/Collection of the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston Yousuf Karsh has snapped portraits of some of the most
iconic figures of the last century. His wide-ranging pool of subjects
includes John F. Kennedy, Joan Crawford, and Walt Disney.
And yet, behind that lens, Yousuf Karsh remains a rather unknown name.
Though his photographs captured world-famous celebrities and
intellectuals, Karsh himself grew up with difficult circumstances.
Born in Turkish Armenia in 1908 during the Armenian genocide, he and
his family were forced to flee their homeland when he was young. By
way of Syria, Karsh eventually settled in Canada. He lived with his
Quebec-based uncle, a professional photographer who mentored him in
the craft.
Karsh's career took off independently in the 1930s, boosted by the
artsy network of his first wife, French-born Solange Gauthier. He
also developed a repertoire photographing political events through
his friendship with Canada's then-Prime Minister Mackenzie King. His
career was launched into an international realm when, in December
1941, Karsh was asked to take a portrait of Winston Churchill during
his state visit to Ottawa, Canada. That success helped his portfolio
expand to include celebrities and dignitaries from the vast worlds
of politics, art, literature, architecture, and the humanities.
Karsh produced more than 150,000 negatives using a large-format 8-by-10
camera throughout his career. Each sitting he would take about 15 to
20 photographs over a two-hour period. He used Tungsten studio lights
or natural light rather than flash so he could follow the organic
progression of his conversation with his subject and photograph him
or her without interruption.
Jerry Fielder worked with Karsh for 13 years and assisted the
photographer on hundreds of sessions. "He would learn as much as he
could about each person he photographed in advance of their meeting,"
Fielder said. "He always required time with his subjects beforehand,
either dinner the night before or a couple of hours the morning of
the session." Fielder called Karsh "a raconteur," noting that he was
"very charming and people enjoyed talking to him." But, Fielder said,
as Karsh's subjects were enjoying his company, Karsh was watching them.
"He would ask them about their children or about their work, and he
would see the expressions on their face. So when they got in front
of the camera later, when he saw a moment they were being themselves,
he knew what to do."
Karsh's images have an elegant plainspokenness to them: direct, often
closely framed. Many portraits highlight the attributes you'd expect
of these famous personalities, though with some of the artists and
architects (Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, I.M. Pei), Karsh widens
the framing to include them in their studio settings, revealing their
personalities by their facial expressions and postures and by what
their surrounding environments say about them.
Karsh worked for more than half a century before he closed his studio
in 1992. Since Karsh's death in 2002, Fielder has been the director
of the Karsh estate. He curated a show of Karsh's work at the Mona
Bismarck Foundation in Paris, currently on view through January.
"Because of the background he came from-which was so awful-I think
you can emerge bitter and resentful," Fielder said of Karsh. "But his
approach was that he saw the worst of life, so he wanted to celebrate
the best of life-he wanted to celebrate people of accomplishment."
Sarah Moroz is a freelance journalist living in Paris. She writes
about photography, literature, fashion, and other cultural topics.
View photos at
http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/10/29/yousuf_karsh_a_photographer_in_the_shadows_of_his_ famous_subjects_photos.html
Slate Magazine
Oct 29 2013
the 20th Century
By Sarah Moroz
Copyright Estate of Yousuf Karsh/Collection of the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston Yousuf Karsh has snapped portraits of some of the most
iconic figures of the last century. His wide-ranging pool of subjects
includes John F. Kennedy, Joan Crawford, and Walt Disney.
And yet, behind that lens, Yousuf Karsh remains a rather unknown name.
Though his photographs captured world-famous celebrities and
intellectuals, Karsh himself grew up with difficult circumstances.
Born in Turkish Armenia in 1908 during the Armenian genocide, he and
his family were forced to flee their homeland when he was young. By
way of Syria, Karsh eventually settled in Canada. He lived with his
Quebec-based uncle, a professional photographer who mentored him in
the craft.
Karsh's career took off independently in the 1930s, boosted by the
artsy network of his first wife, French-born Solange Gauthier. He
also developed a repertoire photographing political events through
his friendship with Canada's then-Prime Minister Mackenzie King. His
career was launched into an international realm when, in December
1941, Karsh was asked to take a portrait of Winston Churchill during
his state visit to Ottawa, Canada. That success helped his portfolio
expand to include celebrities and dignitaries from the vast worlds
of politics, art, literature, architecture, and the humanities.
Karsh produced more than 150,000 negatives using a large-format 8-by-10
camera throughout his career. Each sitting he would take about 15 to
20 photographs over a two-hour period. He used Tungsten studio lights
or natural light rather than flash so he could follow the organic
progression of his conversation with his subject and photograph him
or her without interruption.
Jerry Fielder worked with Karsh for 13 years and assisted the
photographer on hundreds of sessions. "He would learn as much as he
could about each person he photographed in advance of their meeting,"
Fielder said. "He always required time with his subjects beforehand,
either dinner the night before or a couple of hours the morning of
the session." Fielder called Karsh "a raconteur," noting that he was
"very charming and people enjoyed talking to him." But, Fielder said,
as Karsh's subjects were enjoying his company, Karsh was watching them.
"He would ask them about their children or about their work, and he
would see the expressions on their face. So when they got in front
of the camera later, when he saw a moment they were being themselves,
he knew what to do."
Karsh's images have an elegant plainspokenness to them: direct, often
closely framed. Many portraits highlight the attributes you'd expect
of these famous personalities, though with some of the artists and
architects (Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, I.M. Pei), Karsh widens
the framing to include them in their studio settings, revealing their
personalities by their facial expressions and postures and by what
their surrounding environments say about them.
Karsh worked for more than half a century before he closed his studio
in 1992. Since Karsh's death in 2002, Fielder has been the director
of the Karsh estate. He curated a show of Karsh's work at the Mona
Bismarck Foundation in Paris, currently on view through January.
"Because of the background he came from-which was so awful-I think
you can emerge bitter and resentful," Fielder said of Karsh. "But his
approach was that he saw the worst of life, so he wanted to celebrate
the best of life-he wanted to celebrate people of accomplishment."
Sarah Moroz is a freelance journalist living in Paris. She writes
about photography, literature, fashion, and other cultural topics.
View photos at
http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/10/29/yousuf_karsh_a_photographer_in_the_shadows_of_his_ famous_subjects_photos.html