Although many people hoped to be photographed by Karsh, he had his own wish list. Among his ambitions was to photograph Albert Schweitzer, a goal he achieved in Gunsbach, France, during a European trip in 1954 to create portraits for a new book, Portraits of Greatness.
Our wonderful colleagues at Library and Archives Canada, which holds Mr. Karsh’s original materials and correspondence, recently responded to an inquiry about the Schweitzer sitting. They uncovered letters exchanged between Mr. Karsh’s studio and Emmy Martin, Schweitzer’s longtime secretary and business associate, as well as an article in The Atlantic featuring Schweitzer and several of the portraits Karsh made during his 1954 European trip.