Yousuf Karsh

black and white image of Yousuf Karsh in a suit standing with an old fashioned camera.
 

Yousuf Karsh

The man who photographed the Greats
Date of birth
1908
Point of origin
Turkey
Karsh arrived in Canada at Halifax in 1924, an Armenian refugee.
A 1957 portrait by Yousef Karsh of the brilliant musician Canadian Glenn Gould.
Karsh.org
Yousef Karsh's 1946 portrait of Portia White, the acclaimed Black Canadian classical singer.
Karsh.org
Yousuf Karsh, portrait photographer, 1945. Karsh used a remote to reduce the interference of the camera while he conversed with his subjects and composed the image.
Weegee(Arthur Fellig)/International Center of Photography via Getty Images
Yousuf Karsh with his camera, before photographing acclaimed Italian actress Sophia Loren, Paris, 1981.
Manuel Litran via Getty Images
Yousuf Karsh prepares to photograph Sophia Loren, Paris, 1981. Renowned for his use of light, Karsh preferred steady lighting to strobes so that he could see the effect and not distract his subjects.
Manuel Litran via Getty Images

Yousuf Karsh, 1908-2002, Ottoman Empire, now Turkey.

Karsh arrived in Canada at Halifax in 1924, an Armenian refugee. He studied photography with his uncle in Sherbrooke and with John Garo in Boston before settling in Ottawa in 1932. He took portrait photographs of Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Charles de Gaulle, and many other celebrated figures. The resulting images, with their distinctive use of light and shadow, have become the best-known pictures of many of the major personalities of the twentieth century.