Working from a studio in Ottawa，Karsh produced famous portraits of such subjects as Winston Churchill，John F.Kennedy，Nikita Khrushchev，Fidel Castro，Ernest Hemingway and Albert Einstein.Actually he has become almost as famous as his legendary1） subjects.In the latest edition of Who's Who，which listed the most notable people of the last century，Karsh was the only Canadian of the 100famous people listed——51of whom Karsh had photographed.
Karsh was praised as a master portraitist，often working in black and white，influenced by great painters of the past.He was famous for talking to his subjects as he was getting the shot's composition just right，asking them questions and putting them at ease.
He confesses that he continues to feel more challenged when “portraying2） true greatness adequately with my camera.” In preparation，he reads as much as he can about the person before the sitting，but avoids having a preconceived3） idea of how he would photograph the subject.Rather he seeks，as he wrote in Karsh Portfolio in 1967，to capture the “essential element which has made them great，”explaining，“All I know is that within every man and woman a secret is hidden，and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can.The revelation，if it comes at all，will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture，a gleam of the eye，a brief lifting of the mask that all human swear to conceal their innermost4） selves from the world.In that fleeting interval of opportunity the photographer must act or lose his prize.
“Yousuf Karsh was born in Armenia in 1908and grew up under the horrors of the Armenian massacres5）。His photographer uncle，George Nakash，brought him to Canada in 1924and sent him to Boston in 1928to apprentice with John Garo，an outstanding photographer.He not only taught Karsh the technical processes used by photographic artists of the period but also prepared him to think for himself and evolve his own distinctive interpretations.Four years later，he set up his studio in Ottawa.
In December of 1941，his memorable portrait of a glowering，defiant6） Winston Churchill，which symbolized Britain's indomitable7） wartime courage，brought Karsh into international prominence.Canada's Prime Minister Mackenzie King arranged for Karsh to photograph Churchill following Churchill's speech in the House of Commons.Not forewarned，Churchill lit up a cigar and growled，“Why was I not told of this？”but consented to a brief session.Karsh asked him to remove the cigar and，when he didn't，stepped forward and gently removed it with the comment，“Forgive me，Sir.”Churchill glowered as the shot was taken，then permitted Karsh to take still another，jokingly commenting，“You can even make a roaring lion stand still to be photographed.”The Churchill portrait has since app eared in publications and on commemorative8） stamps all over the world.
Karsh traveled to London in 1943with his portable studio——an 8×10view camera and many studio lamps to photograph such notables as George Bernard Shaw，the Archbishop of Canterbury，and the royal family.Years later these timeless photographs are joined by portraits of such statesmen，artists，and movie stars as Laurence Olivier ，Pablo Picasso，Frank Lloyd Wright，and Clark Gable.All these portraits illustrate Karsh's ability to capture the essence of his sitter9）。
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