Yousuf Karsh Research Paper

1289 Words3 Pages

Yousuf Karsh
Yousuf Karsh is one of the most influential photographers to have lived, and his portrait style is still used to this day. Having photographed some of the world's most famous and influential people of his time, his work has stood out from the rest. Not only had Karsh photographed political leaders and stars in the media but he also photographed ordinary people. To sit and be one of his subjects was considered a true honor.
Karsh was born the twenty-third of December, 1908 in Mardin, Armenia, which is now Turkey. As a young kid, the Turkish had invaded his home land. A war that took its toll on the people of Armenia. Karsh describes this time in his biography, "Cruelty and torture were everywhere; nevertheless, life had to go on …show more content…

Garo, a well-known portrait photographer in Boston.
Karsh had a certain style of portrait, he liked his portraits to show personality. His work revealed something about the person in the photograph, and he genuinely enjoyed to photograph these people. Ordinary people, and the people that have made a name for themselves through their accomplishments. His photographs used three techniques taught to him by Garo, light, shadow, and form.
While apprenticing under Garo, Karsh met some of Boston's most influential people. That was when Karsh made it his goal to capture greatness with his camera, and in 1931 he went back to Canada and opened a studio of his own in Ottawa, the nations capital, hoping to photograph the important people that lived, and visited that area. Before photoshoots, Karsh would do research on his well-known subjects to get know who they are and their accomplishments and be able to portray that in his work. Sadly, while Karsh was in Ottawa, his mentor and friend John F. Garo passed in 1939, the same year Karsh would marry his first wife, an actress named Solange Gauthier.
Karsh met his wife at a theater he had been invited to join, Ottawa Little Theater, it was there where he would learn the different techniques of lighting with artificial light, unlike …show more content…

This sparked Karsh's interest because of the possibilities that came with it, working with natural light, by no means, was an easy task. It was in that theater where he also met Lord Duncannon, an actor and son of the Governer General and his wife, Lord and Lady Bessborough of Scotland. He had the pleasure of having them sit in his studio, but expresses his frustrations over the mistakes he made the first time around in his biography, "Lord Duncannon prevailed upon his parents to sit for me, and soon the Governor General, in full regalia with sword and decorations, accompanied by his elegantly gowned, statuesque French wife, was climbing the steps to my studio. In my eagerness and delight I became too excited. My mistakes in English frustrated me; I did not even focus the camera correctly; not surprisingly, this first photographic attempt was disastrous." (Karsh.org) Though he did get a second chance to photograph the pair and get it

More about Yousuf Karsh Research Paper

Open Document