Yousuf Karsh, master photographer of the 20th century
Newly added to the website are two portraits of Betty Ford. They were made during a Sitting with her husband, President Gerald Ford, right at the end of his presidency, in January, 1977. As First Lady from 1974 to 1977, she was active in social policy and set a precedent as a politically active presidential spouse.
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.
Today is the centenary of the birth of Andrei Sakharov. The Soviet and Russian nuclear physicist, dissident, Nobel laureate, and activist for disarmament, peace and human rights was born on May 21, in 1921 (d. 1989). There are several celebrations planned for his centenary this year that will include our photographs, we will keep you posted.
Another image freshly added to the website, American political activist and attorney Ralph Nader. Nader was also photographed for American Legends, in 1990.
In 1992, Yousuf Karsh published American Legends, (Little, Brown and Company), a book of portraits made in 1990 and 1991. “Yousuf Karsh captures the essence of nearly seventy-five of North America’s most fascinating and compelling personalities – from the performing arts, sports, and publishing to the worlds of science, and philanthropy.”
Several were photographed in color, some have been freshly added to the website including Julie Harris, Helen Gurley Brown, Geoffrey Beene and Leo Castelli. Others who were photographed in color include Angela Lansbury, Al Hirschfeld, James Watson, Jasper Johns, Milton Glaser, and Isaac Stern.
American jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck is new to the website. Brubeck was photographed in 1986 for advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather. Karsh photographed a handful of people for this project, the “Staying Power” Series, in 1985 and ’86, including Charles Schultz, John Wooden, and Isaac Asimov.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kai Bird’s new book The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter is out now* from Crown/Random House. This portrait is included.
From the blurb: As president, Carter was not merely an outsider, but an outlier. He was the only president in a century to grow up in the heart of the Deep South, and his born-again Christianity made him the most openly religious president in memory. This outlier brought to the White House a rare mix of humility, candor – and unnerving self-confidence that neither Washington nor America was ready to embrace. Decades before today’s public reckoning with the vast gulf between America’s ethos and its actions, Carter looked out on a nation torn by race and demoralized by Watergate and Vietnam and prescribed a radical self-examination from which voters recoiled. The cost of his unshakable belief in doing the right thing would be a second term – and the ascendance of Reagan. Read more.
*update: new publication date June 15, 2021
A new CD box set of Leonard Bernstein conducting works by Igor Stravinsky is out now from Sony Classical. “Bernstein Conducts Stravinsky” includes concerts with New York Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
“The last great father-figure of Western music” was how Leonard Bernstein eulogized Igor Stravinsky in 1972 before his homage concert in London a year after the composer’s death. Stravinsky’s works, he asserted, “sum up and embrace all of music itself – from primitive folk art to highly sophisticated serialism, from rarefied church music to outspoken jazz.” Read more on Leonard Bernstein’s website.
Josip Broz, commonly known as Tito, was born on this day, May 7, in 1892. Tito was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles from 1943 until his death in 1980. After World War II, he was the chief architect of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, serving as both prime minister (1944–1963), president (later President for life) (1953–1980), and marshal of Yugoslavia, the highest rank of the Yugoslav People’s Army.
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. In 2018 we were thrilled to facilitate the acquisition of a print of the Marx Brothers by New York’s Museum of the City of New York and it was subsequently included in the Museum’s exhibition “Collecting New York’s Stories.”
The donor sent us a copy of the letter that Mr. Karsh included when the photograph was originally purchased by the donor’s father. Karsh wrote, “Your father has mentioned that you have always been an avid fan of the Marx Brothers and of Groucho in particular… I hope I have captured in my photograph the spontaneity that resulted from the three brothers’ inability to be still for even one moment. They had as wonderful a time with me as their willing and hapless victim as I did relishing their antics.”
Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister on this day, May 4, in 1979. She was in office from 1979 to 1990, making her the longest-serving British PM of the 20th century. Thatcher was photographed by Karsh in 1976 at the House of Commons, when she was Leader of the Opposition for the Conservative Party.
When Yousuf Karsh was assigned to photograph General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, for LIFE magazine, Marshall said to the photographer, “You know, Mr. Karsh, the one that I would like you to photograph is not myself so much as my faithful aide, a Black man who was in the service for many, many years.” Karsh noted, “… that touched me, because he was [considered by Marshall to be] the most trusted man in the Pentagon. This was James McIntosh.”
Astronaut Michael Collins has died. Collins flew the Apollo 11 command module Columbia around the Moon in 1969 while his crewmates, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, made the first crewed landing on the surface.
Dogū are small humanoid and animal figurines made during the later part of the Jōmon period (14,000–400 BC) of prehistoric Japan. Karsh’s portrait in which the Japanese writer Kawabata Yasunari poses with a ‘heart-shaped face’ dogū is used to illustrate an article by Marty Borsotti “Dogū – Japan’s Oldest Mystery” in Wasshoi! magazine.
Working alongside our partners at Camera Press, magazines and newspapers around the world published photographs from the Yousuf Karsh archives upon the announcement of Prince Philip’s death earlier this month, including both the British Sunday Times and the New York Times. Special edition books and magazines featuring Mr. Karsh’s portraits are still to come.
Great Britain’s longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch, Elizabeth II, is 95 today. Born April 21 in 1926, she became queen after her father King George VI died, in February 1952. She was photographed twice by Karsh prior to 1952, in 1943 and ’51. He would go on to work with the Royal Family in 1966, 1984 and 1987.
In this beautiful and popular portrait, Princess Elizabeth is wearing a priceless Cartier necklace, a wedding present from the Nizam of Hyderabad, a king in India.
See more portraits of Elizabeth as Princess and Queen.
Our friends and colleagues in the UK celebrated in style.
Konrad Adenauer was a German statesman who served as the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1949 to 1963. He died on this day, April 19, 2021 (b. 1876).
Adenauer was a leading politician in the Weimar Republic, serving as Mayor of Cologne (1917–1933) and as president of the Prussian State Council (1922–1933). In the early years of the Federal Republic he switched focus from denazification to recovery and led his country from the ruins of World War II to becoming a productive and prosperous nation that forged close relations with France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Read more (Wikipedia).
Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, in 1947. When the Dodgers signed Robinson, they heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
In 1997, MLB retired his uniform number 42 across all major league teams; he was the first professional athlete in any sport to be so honored. MLB also adopted a new annual tradition, “Jackie Robinson Day”, for the first time on April 15, 2004, on which every player on every team wears No. 42. Read more (Wikipedia)
Bernard Madoff has died aged 82. He was photographed by Karsh in 1988 in a private session, long before Madoff was exposed for running the biggest investment fraud in US history.
Canada’s Storytellers: the Governor General’s Literary Award Laureates is out now from University of Ottawa Press. Editor Andrew Irvine included several Karsh portraits, both of Governors General and of the Laureates. Field Marshall the Right Honorable Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, aka His Excellency Viscount Alexander, was 17th Governor General of Canada, from 1946 to 1952. Other Karsh portraits in the book include Jeanne Sauvé, Governor General from 1984 to 1990; and author Gabrielle Roy, a Laureate.
“For over three-quarters of a century, the Governor General’s Literary Awards have been awarded annually in a variety of evolving categories. Fifteen Governors General have served as their patron. The impressive list continues to grow apace: between 1936 and 2018, the awards recognized 719 books in English and French and have been presented to 580 authors, illustrators, and translators.
This beautifully illustrated bilingual compendium presents the biographies of all 580 award laureates, many accompanied by stunning archival portraits.” Learn more.
American architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright died on this day, April 9, in 1959 (b. 1867). Karsh wrote of their Sitting in 1945, “Surrounded at Taliesin West, Arizona, by twenty-three of his apprentices, the founder of organic architecture brandished a cigarette he would later sheepishly cut out of his portraits. A strong personality, he was admired – or reviled – for his independence of thought and for his buildings unique in design and structure in the United States, Europe, and Japan. He was more interested in discussing his collection of Japanese prints than the survival of his Imperial Hotel in Tokyo during an earthquake. At one point this avowed iconoclast surprised me: ‘Most men scramble through life, ready to snatch and run, thus cutting themselves off from divinity within. If I don’t believe in the now, I can’t believe in the hereafter.’”
Britain’s Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, has died. Karsh photographed the British royal family on several occasions, from 1943 through to 1987. See more images of Philip here. More of the royal family here.
On this day, April 8, in 1963, Gregory Peck won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird. His award was presented by Sophia Loren.
Yousuf Karsh photographed several other big Hollywood names in 1946, including Bette Davis, Judy Garland, Humphrey Bogart, Boris Karloff, and Sidney Greenstreet. Several were photographed for LIFE. See more.
Rare special permission was granted to editor Michael Karlen to create a color version of a black and white portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev by Yousuf Karsh for Karlen’s book Mikhail Gorbachev: Essential Thoughts, and the Russian-language version is out soon.
“This book sets out, in a concise form, the ideas and ideals, the spirit and vision that guided Mikhail Gorbachev in his world-changing agenda. This wealth of wisdom is an invaluable resource for overcoming the huge social and environmental challenges that humanity faces today. The book’s editor, Michael S. Karlen, has selected text passages from books, speeches, letters and interviews, some never before available in English. They shed light on a number of current topics such as the new political thinking, leadership and responsibility, US-Russia relations, climate change and more.”
American molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist James Watson was born on this day, April 6, in 1928. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule.
Watson was photographed for the 1992 book American Legends in which Karsh is quoted: “The informal and charming Nobelist, not content to rest on the laurels of his spectacular youthful discovery of the structure of DNA, is now himself an inspiring mentor to a group of brilliant young research scientists.”
Young Colombian-Italian conductor Stefano Boccacci has worked with professional orchestras and opera productions in both Europe and South America. In 2019, he made his debut with the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, and wrote asking for permission to use this portrait of Kurt Weill on his new website, to illustrate a past performance of Weill’s “Happy End” that Boccacci conducted.
Karsh’s record of this Sitting with Kurt Weill refers to the “Playwrights’ Company,” which was an American theatrical production company, from 1938-1960. Karsh photographed some of their key players – See a list here. See a fabulous portrait of members Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon.
On this day, April 2, in 2005, John Paul II died at his home in the Vatican. The Polish-born Pope was elected in 1978, and survived two assassination attempts in 1981. His successor, Benedict XVI, began the process to beatify John Paul II in May 2005.
In 1979, Pope John Paul II talked with me about the rescued Polish art treasures I had photographed in Canada after the Second World War, which have since been safely returned to Krakow.
From Biography in Images.
Professional Canadian ice hockey player Gordie Howe was born on March 31, 1928 (d. 2016). From 1946 to 1980, he played twenty-six seasons in the National Hockey League and six seasons in the World Hockey Association. Nicknamed “Mr. Hockey”, Howe is often considered the most complete player to ever play the game and one of the greatest of all time. At his retirement, his 801 goals, 1049 assists, and 1850 total points were all National Hockey League records that stood until they were broken by Wayne Gretzky. Learn more (Wikipedia).
Yuri Gagarin, the Russian pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space, died at just 34 years old on March 27, in 1968. Karsh photographed Gagarin during a two-month trip to Moscow in 1963, in the course of which he photographed many subjects, not least of all Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Leonid Brezhnev, and ballet dancer Maya Plisetskaya.
Gloria Steinem was born on this day, March 25, in 1934. The American feminist, journalist, and social political activist became nationally recognized as a leader and a spokeswoman for the American feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Steinem was a columnist for New York magazine, and a co-founder of Ms. magazine. In 1971, she co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus and co-founded the Women’s Action Alliance which, until 1997, provided support to a network of feminist activists and worked to advance feminist causes and legislation. In the 1990s, Steinem helped establish Take Our Daughters to Work Day, an occasion for young girls to learn about future career opportunities. In 2005, Steinem, Jane Fonda, and Robin Morgan co-founded the Women’s Media Center, an organization that “works to make women visible and powerful in the media”. She remains an organizer and lecturer, and a media spokeswoman on issues of equality.
We lost Elizabeth Taylor on this day, March 23, in 2011. Born in 1932, Taylor began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s. At the time of this portrait, made on Valentine’s Day in 1946, she was fourteen years old and had starred in her breakthrough role in National Velvet. Karsh wrote, “She was totally engrossed with her pet chipmunk and cat, the newest additions to her extensive home menagerie. I named the cat Michael. The next day she called to me from an open car on the M.G.M. lot and held up her newest feline friend. “Look who I have with me,” she cried triumphantly, “Michael Karsh Taylor!” (Biography in Images, MFA Boston)
91st birthday wishes today, March 22, to the one and only Stephen Sondheim.
When Sondheim was about ten years old, he became friends with James Hammerstein, son of lyricist and playwright Oscar Hammerstein II. The elder Hammerstein became Sondheim’s surrogate father, influencing him profoundly and developing his love of musical theatre. Sondheim met Hal Prince, who would direct many of his shows, at the opening of South Pacific, Hammerstein’s musical with Richard Rodgers. Read more about the celebrated composer and lyricist (Wikipedia)
See Karsh’s portrait of Hal Prince.
Josef Albers was a German-born artist and educator, born on March 19, 1888 (d. 1976). He taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College, headed Yale University’s department of design, and is considered one of the most influential teachers of the visual arts in the twentieth century.
See another portrait of Josef Albers.
Read about his “Homage to the Square.”
Our partners and I spend time each day working on the Karsh archive, in one way or another. Today I found myself missing a particular image so turned to our colleagues Camera Press in the UK. While browsing their database, I was happy to find this James Stewart portrait to add to our website, which was made in 1991 for Karsh’s “American Legends” series. Photographed towards the end of Mr. Karsh’s career, the series included more than 50 great names, from theatre producer George Abbott, to film director, screenwriter, and producer Billy Wilder.
On occasion, we are the happy recipients of family portraits and their associated tales. Here we have a portrait of Mrs. V. Hindle, as she was recorded by Mr. Karsh’s secretary at the time, known to her nephew as Viola Schultz. Thanks to the power of the database behind this website, Viola’s relative was able to locate the sitting information, and kindly sent us a copy of the beautiful portrait of his aunt. The photograph was a “family scandal” due to her bare shoulders.
* Update!
Viola went to 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin part of Canadian “Women’s League of Health & Beauty” team. While there she visited relatives outside of the Olympic Venue but was told to be mute because her German had too much English accent. She was told then by her German relatives that war would be coming soon.
She married Fred Hindle in November of 1939 just after he was called to active service. He sailed to England in May 1940.
German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein was born on March 14, in 1879 (d. 1955). Einstein is known widely for developing the theory of relativity, but he also made important contributions to the development of the theory of quantum mechanics.
Of their Sitting in 1948, Karsh wrote, “At Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, I found Einstein a simple, kindly, almost childlike man, too great for any of the postures of eminence. One did not have to understand his science to feel the power of his mind or the force of his personality. He spoke sadly, yet serenely, as one who had looked into the universe, far past mankind’s small affairs. When I asked him what the world would be like were another atomic bomb to be dropped, he replied wearily, ‘Alas, we will no longer be able to hear the music of Mozart.’”
See the beautiful commemorative coin from Canada Mint that features this portrait.
We are very pleased to announce our partnership with the creators of the new three-part, six-hour series “Hemingway” in which Ken Burns and Lynn Novick explore the life and work of the legendary writer and his enduring influence on literature and culture. PBS produced this fabulous treatment that recreates the famous Karsh portrait using Hemingway’s words, reinforcing our iconic portrait as the image conjured in the public’s mind when they think of the great man. Compliments to the Ken Burns team at Florentine Films, and to PBS and their studio partners, SJI Associates, for their creativity, and for being such a pleasure to work with. Learn more about the series. See the original Karsh photograph and others from their sitting.
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was born on this day, March 9, in 1890 (d. 1986). Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik, and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s. Molotov served as Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars from 1930 to 1941, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949 and from 1953 to 1956.
In 1945 Molotov represented the Soviet Union at the “San Francisco Conference”; the conference resulted in the creation of the United Nations Charter. It was during this visit to the USA that he was photographed by Karsh, for LIFE Magazine.
This portrait of Joan Crawford with one of her poodles has been freshly added to the website. Crawford was a big fan of dogs – the Internet is replete with images of her with poodles and dachshunds. Could this pup be Cliquot?
Manners, Morals, and Medical Care – How to be an Effective Physician has just been published by Springer. One of the editors, Barry Silverman, trained under Dr. Helen Taussig at John’s Hopkins University, and this portrait, a favorite of his, is included in his new book.
The story of Helen Taussig is about overcoming childhood hardships, systemic societal and institutional prejudices, bias, bigotry, and unoriginal thinking. She was a remarkably determined individual who used brilliance, tenacity, patience, and determination to achieve her goals. She was dogged but not intransigent and worked almost tirelessly to solve problems and care for patients.