Yousuf Karsh (190-2002) a famous Armenian-Canadian portrait photographer is one of the masters of 20th century photography. His body of work includes portraits of statemen, artist, musicians, authors, scientists, and men and women of accomplishment. His extraordinary and unique portfolio presents the viewer with an intimate and compassionate view of humanity.
Yousuf Karsh 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 him to live with his uncle George Nakash, a photographer in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. 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.
Winston Churchill
In 1967, Karsh was made an officer of the Order of Canada and in 1990, he was promoted to Companion. Out of the 100 most notable people of the century named by the 2000 International Who’s Who list, Yousuf had photographed 51 of them. He was also the only Canadian to make the list himself.
Yousuf was a master of studio lights. He photographed many great celebrated personalities of his generation and he had a gift for capturing the essence of his subject in the instant of his portrait. He also published 15 books of his photographs. The books include brief descriptions of the sessions during which he would questions and talk with his subjects to relax them as he composed the portrait.
Some of the celebrities he photographed included Muhammad Ali, Fidel Castro, W. H. Auden, Marian Anderson, Pablo Casals, Joan Baez , Winston Churchill, Princess Elizabeth, Indira Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Ruth Draper, Grey Owl, Helen Keller, Pope John Paul II, Andy Warhol and Marian Anderson.
In the late 1990s Karsh moved to Boston and on July 13, 2002, aged 93, he died after surgery at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
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