Karsh.org
Yousuf Karsh
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.
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.