Yousuf Karsh, master photographer of the 20th century
Herbert Hoover was an American engineer, businessman, and politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933. Hoover was born on August 10, in 1874. By the time Karsh retired in 1992, he had captured a total of twelve US presidents – Bill Clinton was the last, he was photographed in 1993, after Karsh had closed his studio.
Andy Warhol was born on this day, August 6, in 1928. Warhol was once advised by an art teacher to paint what he liked, which happened to be rather ordinary things.
Karsh photographed Warhol in 1979, 10 years after Warhol founded Interview magazine. See more images of Warhol by Karsh.
H. G. Wells’ science fiction novel War Of The Worlds was first serialized in 1897 and came out in hardback in 1898. With Martians invading England, the latest series of War Of The Worlds will be the first UK television drama series to get cameras rolling in the pandemic era.
Wells was photographed by Karsh in 1943. Wells’ opposition to organised religion “reached a fever pitch” that year with publication of his book Crux Ansata, subtitled “An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church”. Read more (Wikipedia)
1943 was quite a year for Mr. Karsh. He photographed royalty and prime ministers, vice admirals and novelists. See a complete list here.
On July 30, 1965, US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare into law. Medicare now covers tens of millions of Americans. Johnson gave the first two Medicare cards to former President Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess after signing the Medicare bill at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was born on this day, July 28, in 1929. She was First Lady of the United States as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. Although she stated that her priority as a First Lady was to take care of the President and their children, she also dedicated her time to the promotion of American arts and preservation of its history.
Karsh wrote: “Widowhood and adversity had not yet touched the glamorous young wife of the handsome Senator from Massachusetts. Our meeting was at Hammersmith, her mother’s home in Newport. I photographed her against a Coromandel screen that complemented her dark beauty. Weeks later, in New York, she saw me walking down Fifth Avenue and rushed toward me to inquire breathlessly about her photographs. Our last meeting was shortly before her untimely death, when she came to my exhibition ‘American Legends.’ She stood alone at the entrance, her quiet presence penetrating the crowd.”
This week marks the 99th anniversary of the isolation of insulin in July, 1921. As a 22-year-old medical student at the University of Toronto, Dr. Charles Herbert Best worked as an assistant to the surgeon Dr. Frederick Banting, and contributed to the discovery of the pancreatic hormone insulin, which led to an effective treatment for diabetes.
Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Polish-American writer in Yiddish, who died on this day, July 24, in 1991. Although he spoke English, Hebrew, and Polish fluently, he always considered Yiddish his natural tongue.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978. See some other Nobel Prize winners who were photographed by Karsh. See another portrait of Singer from this Sitting.
Isaac Stern would have celebrated his centenary this year – the American violinist was born on July 21, 1920. Stern was one of many Sitters for Karsh’s “American Legends” series.
At his public début on February 18, 1936, aged 15, he played Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor with the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Pierre Monteux.
Broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite died on this day, July 17, in 2009. He was 93 years old. Cronkite served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years, from 1962 to 1981. A poll taken in 1972 named him “the most trusted man in America” – more so than the president at that time, Richard Nixon.
Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, on July 16, 1969, and the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. Karsh photographed the crew, Michael Collins, Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong, in September of that year.
Karsh photographed the three Apollo 8 astronauts, William Anders, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, in April, 1969. Anders took the beloved “Earthrise” photograph on that mission. Read more.
Six years prior, Karsh had a sitting with Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, who was photographed during Karsh’s trip to the USSR. Read more.
Gerald Ford was born on this day, July 14, in 1913. Ford was photographed in January, 1977, in the final year of his presidency, and is one of the twelve US presidents – from Hoover to Clinton – who were photographed by Karsh. On this occasion, the first lady, Betty Ford, was also photographed.
American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, and futurist, Buckminster Fuller was born 125 years ago, on July 12, 1895.
Fuller published more than 30 books. He also developed numerous inventions, mainly architectural designs, and popularized the widely known geodesic dome. Carbon molecules known as fullerenes were later named by scientists for their structural and mathematical resemblance to geodesic spheres. Fuller was the second World President of Mensa from 1974 to 1983.
Fuller’s prophetic 1962 book Education Automation was “a prescient vision for online education decades before the web as we know it.” Read more.
Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida celebrated her 93rd birthday last week. She was one of the highest-profile European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s, starring in dozens of films.
In her retirement Lollobrigida turned to photojournalism. Those she photographed include Paul Newman, Salvador Dalí, Henry Kissinger, Audrey Hepburn, Ella Fitzgerald, and the German national football team.
In 1974 she obtained an exclusive interview with Fidel Castro and later wrote “When I got the idea of a photographic story on Fidel Castro, I asked myself whether it would not be dangerous. I had heard that he is always surrounded by armed soldiers, but the idea also fascinated me. Castro had not been photographed or interviewed by anyone recently.” Indeed, Castro had been photographed by Karsh three years prior.
Gabrielle Roy was a Canadian author. Her first novel, Bonheur d’occasion (1945), gave a starkly realistic portrait of the lives of people in Saint-Henri, a working-class neighborhood of Montreal. The novel caused many Quebeckers to take a hard look at themselves, and is regarded as the novel that helped lay the foundation for Quebec’s Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. She is considered by many to be one of the most important Francophone writers in Canadian history and one of the most influential Canadian authors. Read more (Wikipedia)
This stunning portrait of the great writer is a new addition to the online archive and will feature in an upcoming book about Canada’s Governors General. Stay tuned for more on that!
Italian-American composer and librettist Gian Carlo Menotti was born on this day, July 7, in 1911. Among his many honors and achievements, he won a Pulitzer Prize twice, for The Consul (1950) and for The Saint of Bleecker Street (1955).
Karsh photographed an interesting variety of people in 1956 – have a browse!
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).
Caron is one of many subjects who were photographed by Karsh through Karsh’s friend and long-time agent, Tom Blau, founder of Camera Press. See which other sittings they worked on together.
Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said today his country needs a “Rooseveltian” approach to the economy following the coronavirus epidemic, alluding to Roosevelt’s “New Deal” as Johnson prepares to announce a massive boost to public spending.*
In 1936 Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first American President to pay an official visit to the Dominion of Canada. There to greet him and his son James Roosevelt were Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada and Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. Read more about this unusual Karsh photograph.
*The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. It responded to needs for relief, reform, and recovery from the Great Depression. Major federal programs and agencies included the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Farm Security Administration (FSA), the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). They provided support for farmers, the unemployed, youth and the elderly. The New Deal included new constraints and safeguards on the banking industry and efforts to re-inflate the economy after prices had fallen sharply. New Deal programs included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Read more about the New Deal (Wikipedia).
Beloved American graphic designer Milton Glaser has died. Glaser is well known for the “I Love New York” logo which he designed in 1976 in the back of a taxi, and then drew with red crayon on scrap paper. The original drawing is held in the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. The trademarked logo is owned by the New York State Department of Economic Development.
Sergei Khrushchev, son of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, has died. Khrushchev had been a rocket scientist before he moved to Rhode Island, USA, in 1991, shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, to lecture on the Cold War at Brown University in Providence.
Nikita Khrushchev and his wife, Nina, were photographed in Moscow in 1963. The Karshes met Sergei during that visit, and Mrs. Karsh would be in touch with him years later, discussing the use of our images of his father to be used in Sergei’s books. Nina Khrushchev is remembered particularly fondly by Mrs. Karsh who describes her as “tremendous and brilliant.”
Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten was born Prince Louis of Battenberg on June 25, 1900. He was an uncle of Prince Philip, and second cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II. Mountbatten married Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley in 1922. They were photographed by Karsh in 1943, the same year Karsh photographed then-Princess Elizabeth and His Majesty King George VI.
Karsh photographed approximately 300 people in 1943 – see a list of all of the sitters.
CNN Films announced Thursday that it has acquired North American broadcast rights to the documentary “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President,” which focuses on the role popular music played when the former president ran for the White House.*
In other Carter news: Since its inception 46 years ago, Habitat for Humanity International has mostly been known for building homes for low-income families. 95-year-old Carter and wife Rosalynn are among its most famous current volunteers, building homes in more than a dozen countries. Carter was back at the hammer one day after he fell last year.
*In contrast, the current US President was recently issued a cease and desist order by the estate of Tom Petty, and there are lists of artists who do not want their music being used by his campaign.
American actress, singer, and dancer Judy Garland died on this day, June 22, in 1969. She was just 47 years old. Garland was photographed by Karsh in 1946 for LIFE. Other Hollywood actors who were photographed for the magazine that same year include Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotton, Boris Karloff, and Gregory Peck.
Canadian-Armenian sculptor and doctor Megerditch Tarakdjian lives in Montreal. At a very young age, he attended The Saryan Academy of Art in Aleppo, and although ultimately he chose to pursue a career in medicine in Canada, his devotion to art did not fade.
“Despite being a self-taught artist, Tarakdjian has acquired great artistic knowledge and experience. From a young age, he was interested in painting and sculpting, which he practiced during his student years. Although he chose a career in medicine, he continued painting and sculpting as an amateur artist. In North America, Tarakdjian’s works are placed in many cultural and public institutions as well as embassies in Ottawa and Washington, DC. One of them is a monument to the world-renowned Canadian-Armenian photographer Yousuf Karsh, which was erected (in 2017) in downtown Ottawa, Canada, to mark the 25th anniversary of Armenian-Canadian diplomatic relations as well as Canada’s 150th anniversary.” Read more in the Armenian Mirror Spectator.
On June 12, 1964, Nelson Mandela began a 27 year jail sentence.
Whilst behind bars he was quoted as saying: “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
Thankfully, he lived, and after the end of apartheid went on to serve as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.
On June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy federalized National Guard troops and deployed them to the University of Alabama to force its desegregation. The next day, Governor Wallace yielded to the federal pressure, and two African American students – Vivian Malone and James A. Hood – successfully enrolled.
On June 11, President John F. Kennedy gave this speech declaring segregation as morally wrong. Read more.
99th birthday greetings to the United Kingdom’s Prince Philip today, June 10, 2020. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. He married Elizabeth in November, 1947. He was photographed by Karsh with then-Princess Elizabeth in 1951, again in 1966, and 1984, and finally in 1987 in this group portrait with the grandchildren. See the Sittings.
American architect, interior designer, writer, and educator, Frank Lloyd Wright was born on this day, June 8, in 1867.
Karsh wrote: “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.’”
Robert F. Kennedy had scored major victories when he won both the California and South Dakota presidential primaries on June 4, in 1968. He addressed his supporters in Los Angeles shortly after midnight on June 5, and upon leaving the address, he was shot three times, and died on June 6.
A major proponent of civil rights himself, several public institutions jointly honor Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Muhammad Ali died on this day, June 3, in 2016. Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in 1942, he was a high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement.
“I’m writing a chronicle of one branch of my family history, which includes my great grandfather, Henry Schachte. My internet searches brought me to Mr. Karsh’s website, and the listing for my great grandfather’s sitting (#12628, April 4, 1966).”
Thank you to Henry Schachte’s great granddaughter for sharing this portrait with us. Mr. Schachte joined the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in 1963, and was its president in 1972 and 1973.
Representing the last of pre-lockdown scanning we bring you Vittorio Domenico Stanislao Gaetano Sorano De Sica, an Italian director and actor who was a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards. De Sica was also nominated for the 1957 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing Major Rinaldi in American director Charles Vidor’s 1957 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway‘s A Farewell to Arms, a movie that was panned by critics and proved a box office flop. De Sica’s acting was considered the highlight of the film. Learn more (Wikipedia).
John F. Kennedy was born on this day, May 29, in 1917. He was 35th President of the United States from 1961 to 1963 – the youngest man elected to the office.
Kennedy’s vice president was Lyndon B. Johnson, by whom he was succeeded, and he was preceded in the presidency by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
John F. Kennedy was photographed with Jacqueline Kennedy in 1957 at Hammersmith Farm in Newport, Rhode Island, and again in 1960, in his Senate office during his run for the Presidency. LIFE magazine’s memorial edition for John F. Kennedy after his death in 1963 would feature a color portrait from the 1960 sitting.
Jawaharlal Nehru died on this day, May 27, in 1964. Nehru was an Indian independence activist, and subsequently, the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics before and after independence. He served India as Prime Minister from its establishment as an independent nation in 1947 until his death in 1964. Nehru was photographed twice by Karsh, in 1949 and in 1956.
Karsh photographed on some Hollywood movie sets in the 1960s and ’70s. Our friends at the photo agency MPTV Images shared this wonderful photograph of Roddy McDowall and co-star Kim Hunter on the set of the film “Planet of the Apes,” which was released in 1968. Mr. Karsh can be seen in the background, in the dark suit, preparing his camera and lighting.
Make-up artist John Chambers received an honorary Oscar at the 41st Academy Awards in 1969 – his handiwork is seen below on Roddy McDowall.
Russian nuclear physicist, dissident, Nobel laureate, and activist for disarmament, peace and human rights, Andrei Sakharov was born on this day, May 21, in 1921. Though late in Karsh’s career – he closed his studio in 1992 – 1989 was still a very prolific year for him. See who was photographed that year.
Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died on this day, May 19, in 1994.
Karsh wrote: “Widowhood and adversity had not yet touched the glamorous young wife of the handsome Senator from Massachusetts. Our meeting was at Hammersmith, her mother’s home in Newport. I photographed her against a Coromandel screen that complemented her dark beauty. Weeks later, in New York, she saw me walking down Fifth Avenue and rushed toward me to inquire breathlessly about her photographs. Our last meeting was shortly before her untimely death, when she came to my exhibition ‘American Legends.’ She stood alone at the entrance, her quiet presence penetrating the crowd.”
Freshly digitized, Lammot du Pont II was an American businessman who was the head of the du Pont family company. He was the ninth boy of eleven children born to chemist Lammot du Pont, who himself died during a nitroglycerin explosion in 1884. Du Pont was an American company that was founded in 1802 as a gunpowder mill.
Du Pont sat for Karsh as part of a series for LIFE called “Captains of Industry” – See the others who were photographed.
The Ottawa Jewish Archives shared this fabulous portrait from their collection, with the caption “Lilian Levine (Gould) in her Red Cross volunteer uniform in the 1940s. The image is signed, “To Mother with love, Lilian””
Karsh photographed many Canadian servicemen, servicewomen, and Red Cross volunteers like Lilian. Not all of them have their own records, but lots of them do. And as well as by name, you can search our records by keyword – for example Pilot Officer.
This portrait of Henry Kissinger illustrates a book review in The New Yorker‘s May 18, 2020, issue. “Barry Gewen’s new book, The Inevitability of Tragedy (Norton), belongs to the neither-revile-him-nor-revere-him school of Kissingerology.” Read the article.
Kissinger was Special Advisor for National Security for the President of the United States when he was photographed by Karsh in 1972. He was photographed a second time, in 1990, for Karsh’s “American Legends” series. See who else was photographed. See a portrait of Kissinger from the later Sitting.
May 8, 2020, marked the 75th anniversary of the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the end of World War II in Europe. Several countries observe public holidays on the day each year, variously called Victory Over Fascism Day, Liberation Day or simply Victory Day. In the UK it is often abbreviated to VE Day, or V-E Day in the US.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth addressed the nation. On her desk is the portrait of King George as seen above. Karsh photographed both the King and Princess Elizabeth in 1943, and would go on to photograph the British Royal Family another four times.