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Portrait in Light and Shadow: The Life of Yousuf Karsh
Yousuf Karsh is acknowledged to be the twentieth century's leading portrait photographer. His iconic images of Bogart, Hemingway, Churchill, the Kennedys, Auden, Castro, Einstein, the Clintons, Khrushchev, Casals, and Elizabeth II inhabit the mind's eye of anyone familiar with photographic history. A refugee from the ethnic cleansing of Turkish Armenians in 1916, Karsh made his home in Boston and Ottawa but travelled the globe during his sixty-year career, photographing political leaders, celebrities, monarchs, and movie stars. He died in 2002, aged 94. He left a legacy of 50,000 portraits.
This is the first biography, written with help from his family and colleagues and based on the Karsh archive in Ottawa. Its publication marks Karsh's centenary in 2008, when retrospective exhibitions are scheduled in a number of locations in North America, including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Public Library, and Rhode Island School of Design. The book reproduces sixty of Karsh’s most celebrated portraits, and reveals the technique behind the camera and the brilliant mastery of the photographer.
This is the first biography, written with help from his family and colleagues and based on the Karsh archive in Ottawa. Its publication marks Karsh's centenary in 2008, when retrospective exhibitions are scheduled in a number of locations in North America, including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Public Library, and Rhode Island School of Design. The book reproduces sixty of Karsh’s most celebrated portraits, and reveals the technique behind the camera and the brilliant mastery of the photographer.
- GenresPhotographyBiographyArt
448 pages, Hardcover
First published November 2, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 25, 2013
Fine Book and Excellent Photos
A fine biography of Karsh. Ms Tippett starts with his life in the Middle East - how he, and his parents managed to escape and survive the Turkish genocide of the Armenian people.
Mr. Karsh came to Canada at the age of fourteen to live with his uncle in Sherbrooke. His uncle was a successful portrait photographer in that region of southern Quebec and this started Karsh off on his career.
He married Solange Gauthier who played a pivotal role throughout his life. They met in Ottawa where Karsh had started work in a photo studio. Solange helped him to solidify and expand his governmental contacts in the Capital city. He took photographs of Prime Minister MacKenzie King as well as other government officials.
Solange always helped in his work by seeking clients for her husband; prior to the studio shoots she would inform Karsh of the background of his client and during the portraits she would help put his customers at ease. Karsh's big breakthrough came in 1941 when he took the forever defiant and memorable photo of Winston Churchill, just after he had finished speaking in the Canadian Parliament. With this added to his portfolio and shown in newspapers and magazines around the world (except Germany), Karsh was forever in demand.
During the war (WW II) he traveled to England and the U.S. This was with hundreds of pounds of camera equipment and before air travel!
Ms. Tippett highlights many of the important photo's of Karsh's career and the book has many of these - most of which are excellent. All are well constructed and the technique immaculate.
As Ms. Tippett points out, Karsh was criticized in the photographic community as being commercial and a "celebrity chaser," but it must also be acknowledged that all his photos are dignified and timeless.
If you admire the subject you will love the Karsh photos - the photograph of Eleanor Roosevelt is wonderful (but I didn't like the one of Pierre Trudeau).
Like all good biographer's, Ms. Tippett does not glorify her subject. Mr. Karsh was a distant person and didn't take easily to some of the people who worked for him. Yet for those who did do his work(developing, preparing the lighting for the photo shootsm etc), they took part in photo's that are icons of 20th Century history.
Karsh photograph's - as the ones in this book well illustrate, have withstood the test of time and are etched in our memory.
A fine biography of Karsh. Ms Tippett starts with his life in the Middle East - how he, and his parents managed to escape and survive the Turkish genocide of the Armenian people.
Mr. Karsh came to Canada at the age of fourteen to live with his uncle in Sherbrooke. His uncle was a successful portrait photographer in that region of southern Quebec and this started Karsh off on his career.
He married Solange Gauthier who played a pivotal role throughout his life. They met in Ottawa where Karsh had started work in a photo studio. Solange helped him to solidify and expand his governmental contacts in the Capital city. He took photographs of Prime Minister MacKenzie King as well as other government officials.
Solange always helped in his work by seeking clients for her husband; prior to the studio shoots she would inform Karsh of the background of his client and during the portraits she would help put his customers at ease. Karsh's big breakthrough came in 1941 when he took the forever defiant and memorable photo of Winston Churchill, just after he had finished speaking in the Canadian Parliament. With this added to his portfolio and shown in newspapers and magazines around the world (except Germany), Karsh was forever in demand.
During the war (WW II) he traveled to England and the U.S. This was with hundreds of pounds of camera equipment and before air travel!
Ms. Tippett highlights many of the important photo's of Karsh's career and the book has many of these - most of which are excellent. All are well constructed and the technique immaculate.
As Ms. Tippett points out, Karsh was criticized in the photographic community as being commercial and a "celebrity chaser," but it must also be acknowledged that all his photos are dignified and timeless.
If you admire the subject you will love the Karsh photos - the photograph of Eleanor Roosevelt is wonderful (but I didn't like the one of Pierre Trudeau).
Like all good biographer's, Ms. Tippett does not glorify her subject. Mr. Karsh was a distant person and didn't take easily to some of the people who worked for him. Yet for those who did do his work(developing, preparing the lighting for the photo shootsm etc), they took part in photo's that are icons of 20th Century history.
Karsh photograph's - as the ones in this book well illustrate, have withstood the test of time and are etched in our memory.
April 4, 2014
This is a pretty thorough biography of Karsh, and in any event the first one available. His privacy makes him a difficult subject, but all major life events are here. The book is especially good regarding his two wives, and the business aspects of his struggle to be a working self-supporting and respected artist. Many biographies of writers and artists ignore the business side, unfortunately, but it is a real deterrent to much creative work in an age without princely patrons, and deserves realistic treatment as here.
The author is a Canadian cultural historian, and the book basically has that slant, which is fine. There is still room however for a critical look at his overall influences, technique, and aesthetics. Artists are not themselves always trustworthy sources on those subjects, and sometimes the best artists are the worst on the subject of their own work.
Karsh repeatedly stated he believed there was something special about the great personalities of tan age, as recorded here. Agree or disagree with that, it worked for him. Some photos may suffer from a tad too much pandering, but this is a fact to be taken into account for the court artists of every age, including Rembrandt, Reynolds, Gainsborough and Velasquez. One should also not be put off if the artist is not somebody you would want as a friend (or, for that matter, a teddy bear). This is a silly and unrealistic way to view anyone's life, artists not excepted, although the present age creates a false sense of intimacy with "stars." Karsh walked along this edge, sometimes penetrated it, sometimes eerily created and/or captured the public personna of his subjects. See Jung on the subject; it is too big to expect any orddinary biographer to tackle. This book mainly succeeds, and should remain a major resource for many years.
The author is a Canadian cultural historian, and the book basically has that slant, which is fine. There is still room however for a critical look at his overall influences, technique, and aesthetics. Artists are not themselves always trustworthy sources on those subjects, and sometimes the best artists are the worst on the subject of their own work.
Karsh repeatedly stated he believed there was something special about the great personalities of tan age, as recorded here. Agree or disagree with that, it worked for him. Some photos may suffer from a tad too much pandering, but this is a fact to be taken into account for the court artists of every age, including Rembrandt, Reynolds, Gainsborough and Velasquez. One should also not be put off if the artist is not somebody you would want as a friend (or, for that matter, a teddy bear). This is a silly and unrealistic way to view anyone's life, artists not excepted, although the present age creates a false sense of intimacy with "stars." Karsh walked along this edge, sometimes penetrated it, sometimes eerily created and/or captured the public personna of his subjects. See Jung on the subject; it is too big to expect any orddinary biographer to tackle. This book mainly succeeds, and should remain a major resource for many years.
February 25, 2019
Great book about Karsh but also about photography!
A must for all those who love the art of image.
A must for all those who love the art of image.
June 8, 2014
A full and detailed biography of one of my heroes. Tippett's writing in the first half of the book, taking Karsh up to the 1950's is doctrinaire and matter-of-fact and somewhat dull. Must admit though that Karsh's rise from penniless immigrant to world-class, respected portraitist was much of a straight line. It was in the 50's when he branched out into non-static, informal portraiture in steel mills for instance, accepting commissions from various and varying commercial enterprises and attempting to capture the essence of his adopted country of Canada that both his story and Tippett's writing becomes more interesting and fluid. As Karsh started to deal with criticism and disappointment, her narrative takes on a dramatic flare that fully suits her subject matter. Good read...and LOTS of photographs.
May 5, 2013
Growing up Canadian, Karsh was one of those people, like Glenn Gould, for example, whose name was stuck in my consciousness almost from birth. So it was interesting to read this fairly well written and enlightening book. It's somewhat repetitive, like it's subject, but a fast and easy read so I didn't mind. I enjoyed it but I'm still not a fan of Karsh's photography and have mixed feelings about the man himself.
As a matter of fact I'm even less a fan of the photos after reading this.
As a matter of fact I'm even less a fan of the photos after reading this.
January 11, 2016
An insightful account of a very talented man, whose camera was the marvelous "brush" that he painted his unforgettable portraits. He was a loving person whose second wife encouraged him to continue on creating, right up until he close his studio. But this biography gives a detailed view of a man who let us see inside the personas of others.........
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews