Yousuf Karsh, master photographer of the 20th century
August 16, 1954, saw the launch of Sports Illustrated magazine. It was founded by Henry Luce (1898-1967), an American magazine magnate who also founded Time, LIFE, and Fortune. He has been called “the most influential private citizen in the America of his day.”
The Woodstock Music & Art Fair kicked off today, August 15, in 1969. Karsh photographed two musical artists who performed at the festival: Ravi Shankar and Joan Baez. Shankar played through the rain on Friday from 10-10:35 pm; Baez played later the same night into Saturday morning, while six months pregnant.
Zsa Zsa Gabor (1917- 2016) was a Hungarian-American actress and socialite. She emigrated from Hungary to the United States in 1941, becoming a sought-after actress with “European flair and style”. Married nine times, divorced seven, she once said: She commented: “I am a marvelous housekeeper: Every time I leave a man I keep his house.”
We just uploaded this and another portrait of Ms. Gabor – we are always adding to the website, so visit often!
Italian aristocrat, fashion designer and politician Emilio Pucci married Cristina Nannini in 1959. There is very little information available about her on the Web, and she is barely mentioned on Pucci’s Wikipedia page. Karsh photographed them both in 1967 for Look magazine. The Sitting record reads “Mr. & Mrs. Emilio Pucci.” Her solo portrait has been freshly added to the website.
Arthur Goldberg was an American statesman and jurist who served as the 9th U.S. Secretary of Labor, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the 6th United States Ambassador to the United Nations. He was born on this day, August 8, in 1908 (d. 1990).
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Goldberg as the Secretary of Labor; and in ’62, Kennedy successfully nominated Goldberg to the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Felix Frankfurter. In 1965, he resigned from the bench to accept appointment by President Lyndon B. Johnson as the Ambassador to the United Nations. He ran for the position of Governor of New York in 1970 but was defeated by Nelson Rockefeller.
J. Arthur Rank (1888-1972) was a highly successful British industrialist. In 1935 he was one of a trio who became owner-operators of Pinewood Film Studios, and he became a producer of major films. Rank was one of 24 sitters who were photographed on an August 5th.
Karsh’s records show 46 sittings that took place on August 1sts between 1933 to 1993. On August 1st 1948, Karsh took this group “selfie” with his mother and brothers, who had recently been united in Canada.
See a portrait of Karsh’s mother Bahiyah with his father Massih.
Dag Hammarskjöld was born on July 29, in 1905 (d. 1961). He was a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death – Hammarskjöld’s second term was cut short when he died in a plane crash in 1961 while en route to cease-fire negotiations during the “Congo Crisis” between 1960 and 1965. After Hammarskjöld’s death, U.S. president John F. Kennedy regretted that he had opposed UN policy in the Congo and said: “I realize now that in comparison to him, I am a small man. He was the greatest statesman of our century.”
This portrait was recently published in the Companion to The Robert and Kerstin Adams Photography Collection at the Denver Art Museum.
Our friends at Art Canada Institute have published a new book, Ottawa Art & Artists: An Illustrated History, by Jim Burant.
“Most Canadians know Ottawa as their national capital: a place politicians gather to debate the country’s governance and finances. But Ottawa is much more than this. Politicians may come and go, but the living, breathing city remains, filled with people who are proud to call it home and a long, vibrant artistic scene. This book will explore and celebrate the cultural and artistic legacy of Ottawa, both the city and the region.” (Read it free here.)
Yousuf Karsh is among the “key artists” and this early Karsh portrait, of actor Lysle Courtenay from the Ottawa Little Theater reading his lines, is included. Karsh notes in his biography:
While my career seemed to be well launched, I had few friends in Ottawa during those early months, and I welcomed an invitation to join the Ottawa Little Theatre, an enthusiastic group of amateur players. The casual invitation was to have lasting effects on my life and career. The experience of photographing actors on the stage with stage lighting was exhilarating. The unlimited possibilities of artificial light overwhelmed me. Working with daylight in Garo’s studio one had to wait — often for hours — for the light to be right. In this new situation, instructions about lighting effects were given by the director; he could command the lighting to do what he wished. Moods could be created, selected, modified, intensified. I was thrilled by this means of expression, this method of interpreting life; a new world was opened to me.
“He said I might make a good picture of him – but none as good as the picture he had seen at a recent dinner party where he glimpsed, over the shoulder of his hostess, a perfect portrait of himself: “Cruel, you understand, a diabolical caricature, but absolutely true.” He pushed by the lady, approached the living image, and found he was looking into a mirror! The old man peered at me quizzically to see if I appreciated his little joke. It was then that I caught him in my portrait.”
Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist George Bernard Shaw was born on this day, July 26, in 1856 (d. 1950).
Baruj Benacerraf (1920-2011) was a Venezuelan-American immunologist, who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the “discovery of the major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell surface protein molecules important for the immune system’s distinction between self and non-self.” He was photographed on this day, July 25, in 1988, with his Sitting record referencing his role at the Dana Farber Cancer Center where he was president from 1980-92.
The American novelist and journalist Ernest Hemingway was born on this day, July 21, in 1899 (d. 1961). Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. He published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two nonfiction works.
Karsh wrote: “I expected to meet in the author a composite of the heroes of his novels. Instead, in 1957, at his home Finca Vigía, near Havana, I found a man of peculiar gentleness, the shyest man I ever photographed – a man cruelly battered by life, but seemingly invincible. He was still suffering from the effects of a plane accident that occurred during his fourth safari to Africa. I had gone the evening before to La Floridita, Hemingway’s favorite bar, to do my ‘homework’ and sample his favorite concoction, the daiquiri. But one can be overprepared! When, at nine the next morning, Hemingway called from the kitchen, ‘What will you have to drink?’ my reply was, I thought, letter-perfect: ‘Daiquiri, sir.’ ‘Good God, Karsh,’ Hemingway remonstrated, ‘at this hour of the day!’”
At 10:56 p.m. EDT, July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped off the lunar landing module Eagle, and became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.
See the records of Karsh’s NASA Sittings.
Neil Armstrong took many photographs while on the surface of the moon, including this image of his famous footstep. He later gave this print to Mr. Karsh to thank him for a portrait session. The print is signed by the astronaut and inscribed: “That’s one small step for a man – one giant leap for mankind. To Yousuf & Estrellita – with the admiration and best wishes of the photographer.”
Something different from Karsh’s early days in Ottawa.
“The photographic vignette was to be its own little drama. Betty Low and Solange spontaneously improvised a ballet lesson for a young photographer experimenting with his camera. Having worked only with available light during my student days in Boston, I was intrigued by the endless possibilities offered by the incandescent lights of the theater.”
Betty Low, “the student”, was a Canadian-born dancer and actress who began her career with the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo and performed and taught in the US for 70 years. Karsh’s first wife, Solange Gauthier Karsh, “the teacher,” was also a dancer.
On this day, July 18, in 1918, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born. The anti-apartheid revolutionary and political leader was photographed by Karsh in June, 1990, just four months after Mandela’s release from prison. Brian Mulroney, Prime Minister of Canada at the time, greeted Mandela at the airport and accompanied him to the Chateau Laurier for his portrait. Read what happened.
When Mandela died in 2013, Apple used this Karsh portrait on their home page to commemorate the great man’s life.
The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier21 in Halifax, Canada, held a concert for the opening night of “The World of Yousuf Karsh” exhibition a few weeks ago. It is wonderful to see Mr. Karsh’s portraits of legendary performers as the backdrop to these young artists.
“The World of Yousuf Karsh: A Private Essence” is on view through October 16, 2022, at Pier 21, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The first in a new series – people who were photographed “on this day” – starts with Garth Drabinsky. He was photographed on July 12, 1989. Born in 1949, he is a Canadian film and theatrical producer and entrepreneur. He co-founded Cineplex Theatres, which created a chain of multiplex for the Canadian market. By May 1984, it had acquired the Canadian Odeon Theatre chain, thus becoming Cineplex Odeon and a major player in the industry.
In 2009, he was convicted and sentenced to prison for fraud and forgery!
Nelson Rockefeller was born on this day, July 8, in 1908 (d. 1979). He was born into great wealth but forged a life of his own in politics, philanthropy, and the arts. He served as Governor of New York between 1959 and 1973, and Vice-President of the United States under Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977. He was photographed by Karsh in 1944 during Rockefeller’s tenure as “Co-ordinator of Inter-American Affairs, Commerce Dept. Washington, D.C.“
The Times West Virginian has a wonderful write-up about the exhibition “The World of Yousuf Karsh” on view at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier21, via Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
“Winston Churchill, determined. Albert Einstein, ethereal. Eleanor Roosevelt, engaging. Andy Warhol, whimsical. Pablo Picasso, intense. Georgia O’Keeffe, pensive.
Here, assembled in something of a Global Portrait Gallery, are Karsh’s People – the men and women whom Yousuf Karsh captured in peerless portrait photographs, brought together as kind of a dream team of politics and the arts and on display for months at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. In a half-hour stroll through a hushed walkway, the visitor had a glimpse of much of the history and culture of the West (and occasionally beyond) in the 20th century, the product of one man’s camera and his unerring eye.” – David Shribman. Read the whole article.
A new exhibition has opened at the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Washington, D.C., and this Novella magazine cover from 1958 of Princess Grace wearing Dior, is on display now through January, 2023.
“The special exhibition Grace of Monaco: Princess in Dior will explore the longstanding collaboration between Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, and Marc Bohan, artistic director at Christian Dior, through clothing, accessories, photos, and more, on special loan from the Palace of Monaco.”
Wanda Landowska was a Polish harpsichordist and pianist who was born on this day, July 5 in 1879 (d. 1959). Landowska’s performances, teaching, writings and her many recordings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century. She was the first person to record Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” on the harpsichord in 1933.
The great violinist Yehudi Menuhin had a long and close friendship with Landowska – seen here together in this Karsh double portrait.
French-American actress and dancer Leslie Caron was born on this day, July 1, in 1931. She appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003 and is well known for the musical films “An American in Paris” (1951), her film debut; “Lili” (1953); “Daddy Long Legs” (1955), and “Gigi” (1958).
Louis Burton Lindley Jr., better known by his stage name Slim Pickens, was born on this day, June 29, in 1919 (d. 1983). He was an American actor and rodeo performer. Last year when we posted this photograph from Karsh’s series of the Calgary Rodeo, a follower on Instagram spotted Slim Pickens at top left of this frame.
Starting off in the rodeo, Pickens transitioned to acting and appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows. For much of his career Pickens played mainly cowboy roles; he is perhaps best remembered today for his comic roles in Dr. Strangelove and Blazing Saddles. Read more (Wikipedia)
Gabrielle Roy (1909-1983) was a Canadian author and a major figure in French Canadian literature. Our colleagues at le Monastere des Augustines in Quebec, Canada, are currently exhibiting Roy’s typewriter, and also a handwritten letter by Roy, using this Karsh portrait to illustrate.
Anna Magnani (1908-1973) was an Italian actress who worked her way through Rome’s Academy of Dramatic Art by singing at night clubs. Known for her realistic portrayals of characters, playwright Tennessee Williams wrote The Rose Tattoo (1955) specifically for her to star in, a role for which she received an Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Italian – and first non-native-English speaking woman – ever to win an Oscar.
Karsh’s portrait of Magnani is freshly added to this website.
Benazir Bhutto was born on this day, June 21, in 1953. She served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996 and was the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim majority nation. She was photographed by Karsh on a visit to Washington, DC, in 1989.
Karsh also photographed Benazir’s father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in 1976 as Pakistani PM.
VideoOut creates content about LGBTQ+ identity, history, and culture. This Pride month they have released an animated video highlighting “The Queer History of the South” and included this portrait of Tennessee Williams. You can catch him smoking his cigarette just after four minutes in.
Bernard Baruch was an American financier and statesman. Born in 1870, Baruch amassed a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange and foresaw the Wall Street crash; he impressed President Woodrow Wilson by managing the nation’s economic mobilization in World War I as chairman of the War Industries Board, and his Sitting record reads: “Mr. Bernard M. Baruch, May 11, 1944. Special Advisor to Director, Office of War Mobilization. For LIFE Magazine.”
Baruch died on this day, June 20, in 1965. Read more about his life (Wikipedia).
It was the centenary of Judy Garland’s birth last week. Born Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922, Garland is probably best known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz. By the time of her death in 1969, Garland had appeared in more than 35 films and won multiple awards. She was photographed in 1946, a year which saw Karsh photograph other icons of screen and stage such as Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Angela Lansbury, and Boris Karloff.
President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court on this day, in 1967. The Senate confirmed Marshall’s nomination by a vote of 69 to 11. Two days later, he was sworn in by Chief Justice Earl Warren, making him the first African American in history to sit on America’s highest court. Johnson said that this was “the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place.”
Claudio Arrau was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. Born in 1903, Arrau is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. He died on this day, June 9, in 1991.
Some glamor to get us through Hump Day. Mary Martin (1913-1990) was an American actress and singer. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles on stage over her career, including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific (1949), the title character in Peter Pan (1954), and Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1959). She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989. She was the mother of actor Larry Hagman.
See another portrait of Mary Martin.
Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung died on this day, June 6, in 1961 (b. 1875). He created some of the best known psychological concepts, including synchronicity, archetypal phenomena, the collective unconscious, the psychological complex and extraversion and introversion. Jung was also an artist, craftsman, builder and a prolific writer. He continued to publish books until the end of his life, including Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies in 1959, the year after he was photographed by Karsh. The book analyzed the archetypal meaning and possible psychological significance of the reported observations of UFOs. Read more (Wikipedia).
Queen Elizabeth II has been featured in currency ever since she was a little girl. This Canadian $1 featuring a Karsh portrait from 1951 was first issued in 1954. The tiara was removed from the photograph to distinguish it from a Canadian stamp that used the same photo. The original image, with the tiara, was also used in the window of a Canadian banknote issued 61 years later in 2015.
Read all about Her Majesty’s history with currency in the Sydney Morning Herald.
On June 3, 1937, former King Edward VIII married Wallis Simpson. Having ruled for less than one year, Edward became the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne as he wished to marry a divorcée. Their marriage followed his abdication in December 1936, when the new King George VI announced he was to make his brother the “Duke of Windsor” with the style of Royal Highness.
The couple lived mainly in exile in Paris, France.
Celebrations for Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee begin today. We now have more than a dozen photographs of Her Majesty on the website, more than any other Karsh subject. Click here to see them.
“Countless Journeys” is a podcast from the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21; Season 3, which has just launched, celebrates the contributions of Canadian immigrants to the performing and visual arts. They begin with “a celebration of the life and work of legendary photographer Yousuf Karsh.”
“Karsh’s life story, from refugee to world-class photographer, unfolds, along with more than 100 of his portraits, in a wonderful exhibit featured at the Canadian Museum of Immigration, “The World of Yousuf Karsh: A Private Essence.” We speak with Dr. Hilliard Goldfarb, who is senior curator emeritus with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the lead curator of the exhibit.” Listen here.
This episode, “Visionaries Past & Present,” also includes Dinuk Wijeratne, a Juno award winning composer and performer whose music blurs boundaries and shakes up traditional approaches to classical music.
The United States first proposed an anti-ballistic missile treaty at the 1967 Glassboro Summit Conference during discussions between U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union Alexei Kosygin.
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was signed on this day, May 26, in 1972, by the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev.
British politician Harold Wilson died on this day, May 24, in 1995. Born in 1916, Wilson was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1983, and served as Prime Minister twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. Wilson was the Leader of the Labour Party from 1963 to 1976.
Karsh photographed Wilson on three occasions, 1949, 1958, and 1963.
Born in 1925, trailblazing American broadcast journalist Barbara Walters was a working reporter from 1951 until 2015, appearing as a host of numerous television programs, including Today, The View, 20/20, and the ABC Evening News. May 16, 2014, was Walters’ last day as a co-host on the all-women talk show The View that she created in 1997. She then hosted a few special 20/20 episodes, with her final on-air appearance in December, 2015.