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Yousuf Karsh

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Also known as Karsh of Ottawa

Armenian-Canadian photographer (1908–2002)

Person · Open Library

Born
1908
Died
2002
Works
28

Top works

  • Karsh portraits
  • Photographers and their images
  • Harlan Fiske Stone
  • Karsh
  • Renzu ga toraeta 20-seiki no kao

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
Canada
Active from
1908
Active to
2002

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Quotes

  • The silence seemed to me more instructive than words. A sense of power clung to him like a garment, and it required no utterance. The square-cut and deeply graven face, the huge body, and, above all, the sombre granitic look indicated a singleness of purpose, a dedication to some inward and unshakable decision.
  • Among the tasks that life as a photographer had set me, a portrait of Albert Einstein had always seemed a 'must'—not only because this greatest refugee of our century has been accounted by all the world (except his homeland) as the outstanding scientist since Newton, but because his face, in all its rough grandeur, invited and challenged the camera.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
( 1908-12-23 ) December 23, 1908, Mardin , Diyarbekir Vilayet , Ottoman Empire
Died
July 13, 2002 (2002-07-13) (aged 93), Boston , Massachusetts, U.S.
Burial place
Notre-Dame Cemetery
Citizenship
Canada
Spouses
Solange Gauthier ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1939 ; died 1961 ) ​ Estrellita Nachbar ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1962 ) ​
Website
karsh .org

via Wikipedia infobox

Works in European collections

1 object attributed to Yousuf Karsh, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

~16 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Yousuf Karsh (December 23, 1908 – July 13, 2002) was a Canadian photographer known for his portraits of notable individuals. He has been described as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century.

An Armenian genocide survivor, Karsh emigrated to Canada as a refugee. By the 1930s, he established himself as a significant photographer in Ottawa, where he lived most of his adult life, though he traveled extensively for work. His iconic 1941 photograph of Winston Churchill marked a major turning point in his career and brought him international recognition. More than 20 photos by Karsh appeared on the cover of Life magazine, until he retired in 1993.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Yousuf Karsh” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.