Yousuf Karsh, master photographer of the 20th century
Estrellita Karsh was born on this day, January 19, in 1930. This year, her birthday coincides with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday in the United States observed on the third Monday of January. Estrellita left her childhood home in New Jersey at the age of 16 for Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, which was also attended by Dr. King’s future wife, Coretta Scott. Read more about Estrellita’s life.
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” was ratified on this day, January 16, in 1919.
In the late 1920s Yousuf Karsh apprenticed with Boston-based portraitist John H. Garo. In his book, Yousuf Karsh & John Garo: The Search for a Master’s Legacy, author Mehmed Ali wrote,
“Aside from lessons in photography, Garo was also giving an invaluable “education in the humanities.” This education was chiefly accomplished through his exposure to the city’s cultural and civic leaders who visited the Boylston Chambers studio to experience Garo’s hospitality.
To compensate for the slowing workload and to illustrate his free spirit in the face of Prohibition, Garo began having parties at the Boylston Street studios during the 1920s. When the sun fell around four o’clock in the afternoon and Garo could no longer photograph using the natural northern light, spontaneous gatherings would occur. Illegal liquor was concocted in the darkroom by adding gin, rye, or bourbon flavoring purchased at a drugstore to alcohol brought to the studio by a local bootlegger who smuggled his wares in turpentine tins. Depending on the moods of the guests, the conversation would run from “stimulating and . . . serious” to “very frivolous.”
“Garo’s salon was my university, a noble institution at which to have been permitted to study.”
The young Karsh was fully in the midst of these gatherings and participated by serving as a bartender, “which service Garo seemed to associate with the handling of chemicals used in his developing room.” With dramatic flourish Garo would herald his understudy: “Now for Dr. Koussevitsky, Yousuf . . . let us have some nitric acid,” which was code for a gin and tonic. This would be followed by another rousing call: “And for Arthur Fiedler, some hypo,” which was le nom de guerre for bourbon.”
Here is a third portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that we have only just added to the website and it seems appropriate to upload it now, ahead of MLK Day next week in the United States. See the other two.
Joan Baez was born on this day, January 9, in 1941. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more than 30 albums. She was photographed by Karsh in 1970, for Look magazine’s “Under 30” series, and again in 1979 for CBS records.
This cover of Maclean’s from 1944 has been digitized by our colleagues at Library and Archives Canada. It shows an early color portrait, of Lord Louis Mountbatten, made by Karsh in 1943. See a black and white portrait, and a portrait of Mountbatten with his wife, Lady Edwina.
One of America’s greatest poets and writers, Carl Sandburg was awarded the Pulitzer Prize three times – twice for volumes of his poetry, and once for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. Sandburg was born on this day, January 6, in 1878 (d. 1967).
“The sitting for this portrait of Carl Sandburg was brief for he could spare only a few minutes in 1954 in my New York studio-apartment for a portrait, and less for conversation. Still, the tall, broad figure, the massive, roughcast face, the clear eyes, and the mane of white hair falling across the forehead must delight any photographer.” Read more.
D. Kenneth Sargent (1904-1991) was an architect and educator who was photographed by Karsh during Sargent’s tenure as Dean of Architecture at Syracuse University in New York.
According to a new article, which is published as part of the bicentennial celebrations for St. Paul’s Church in Syracuse, Sargent designed “much of the Chancel furniture, the Peace Altar, the cases for the main and antiphonal organs, the Sacristy paneling, and the Chancel stenciling.”
“Kenneth had a dual-career as an architect and educator. He graduated with honors from Syracuse University’s School of Architecture in 1927; joined the faculty in 1930; became dean in 1958; and was named professor emeritus upon his retirement in 1970.”
American writer and professor of biochemistry Isaac Asimov was born on this day, January 2, in 1920. He was known for his works of science fiction and popular science. National Science Fiction Day is informally celebrated today to honor his birthday.
French actress, singer, model, and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot has died.
Karsh wrote, “I happened to return to Paris directly from the Vatican photographing Pope John the 23rd. And the word had reached her that the person that [is] about to photograph you has just come directly from Rome. And with her typical charm and touch of gaiety, she said, ‘Is it true you have just come from photographing Pope John the 23rd?’ I said, yes. ‘Ah,’ she said, ‘ from the saint to the sinner.’”
Yousuf Karsh was born on this day, December 23, in 1908. During his career he held 15,312 sittings, produced over 370,000 negatives, and left an indelible artistic and historic record of the men and women who shaped the twentieth century. Karsh kept a card file for every sitting, beginning in 1933 and running through to 1993, and the records have been transcribed and are searchable here on this website.
Jacob Epstein helped pioneer modern sculpture. Born in 1880 in the United States, he moved to Europe in 1902, and became a British subject in 1910. Epstein was photographed on this day, December 10, in 1955. In the UK for a few days, Yousuf Karsh photographed Winston Churchill receiving the Colonial Williamsburg Award on December 7; foreign secretary Harold Macmillan on the 8th; historian Arnold Toynbee of the Royal Institute of International Affairs on the 11th, and R. A. Butler, Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the 12th.
“On April 21, 1963, Moscow’s first real spring day, we were driven to Nikita Khrushchev’s official dacha outside the capital, a large, impersonal guest house free of ornamentation. …As I watched Khrushchev’s portly figure approaching, suddenly I thought, “Here is a personality that I must photograph in a big fur coat.” I asked the press officer for such a coat. He shook his head. “Niet.”
My wife asked Mrs. Khrushchev; alas, the garment was in mothballs in their Moscow apartment. After making formal portraits of the affable chairman, I switched the lights off, and, to the surprise of the interpreter, I asked Khrushchev directly. “Why not?” he replied. “Of course.”
Soon an aide appeared, weighed down under the most voluminous fur I have ever seen. The chairman sent the aide to his private dacha nearby to fetch a knitted woolen stocking cap to complete the costume. “You must take the picture quickly,” the chairman smiled, donning the coat, “or this snow leopard will devour me.””
On this day, December 3, in 1967, the first human heart transplant was performed in South Africa by Dr. Christiaan Barnard on a patient named Louis Washkansky. Barnard was assisted by his brother, Marius Barnard, as well as a team of thirty others. The operation lasted approximately five hours. Dr. Barnard was photographed by Karsh in 1969 at the Montreal Heart Institute in Canada.
Charles Schulz was born on this day, November 26, in 1922 (d. 2000). Schulz is most well known for his hugely successful Peanuts series, which at its height was published daily in 2,600 papers in 75 countries, in 21 languages. During the strip’s run, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997 to celebrate his 75th birthday; the only time that re-runs occurred during Schulz’s life. “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” is a 1966 American animated television special based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. Happy Halloween to Peanuts fans thinking about “The Great Pumpkin” this week.
Garson Kanin was an American writer and director of plays and films. He dropped out of school to take up a career on the theatre stage, became a professional saxophone player and leader of his own band that went by the name Garson Kanin and His Red Hot Peppers.
Kanin was married to his frequent collaborator, Academy Award-winning actress Ruth Gordon, from 1942 to her death in 1985. Gordon was an actress, playwright and screenwriter. She began her career performing on Broadway at age 19.
Garson Kanin was born on this day, November 24, in 1912 (d. 1999).
Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, inventor, teacher, and environmental activist Margaret Atwood was born on this day, November 18, in 1939. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children’s books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction.
Atwood was photographed by Karsh in 1977 for his book Karsh Canadians (1978, University of Toronto Press) but she was also photographed in 1985 as “One of group of writers photographed together for Apple Canada, Inc. Including Charles Templeton, Ben Wicks, Harold Towne, Veronica Tennant, Margaret Atwood.”
Paul Nitze was an American businessman and government official who, in the 1960s, served as United States Deputy Secretary of Defense, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, and Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department. This portrait has been recently added to the website. See another portrait of Nitze.
Nitze served under presidents Johnson, Kennedy, Truman, and Eisenhower.
Yousuf Karsh: Life & Work by Melissa Rombout traces the extraordinary journey of a refugee who became one of the country’s most celebrated photographers, documenting the heroes of the twentieth century and creating an enduring portrait of Canada.
Art Canada Institute proudly releases the print edition and the book is also available as a free, open-access, online publication in the celebrated Canadian Online Art Book Project. This sumptuous volume traces the creative career of Armenian Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh, whose distinctive portraits of the great and famous influenced the way the public came to know them.
Author Melissa Rombout, an independent curator and expert in the histories of photography, spent many years as a photo-archivist at Library and Archives Canada, researching the vast Yousuf Karsh collection of more than 15,000 portrait sittings. In Yousuf Karsh: Life & Work, she not only examines the famed photographer’s aesthetic and technical choices but also offers a fresh perspective on what his work means to a twenty-first-century audience. “The world of photography has moved on since Karsh’s time,” says Rombout, “[but] Karsh’s method of portraiture continues to inspire dynamic engagement.”
Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and photographer Bryan Adams was born on this day, November 5, in 1959. With as many as 100 million record sales, Adams is among the best-selling music artists, and his photography has been published worldwide.
Broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite was born on this day, November 4, in 1916 (d. 2009). He 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.
John Glenn returned to space on October 29, 1998, as a payload specialist on Space Shuttle Discovery, nearly four decades after he became the first American to orbit the Earth.
In 1995, Glenn was reading Space Physiology and Medicine, a book written by NASA doctors. He realized that many changes that occur to physical attributes during space flight, such as loss of bone and muscle mass and blood plasma, are the same as changes that occur due to aging. Glenn thought NASA should send an older person on a shuttle mission, and thought that it should be him. Starting in 1995, he began lobbying NASA director Dan Goldin for the mission. Goldin said he would consider it if there was a scientific reason, and if Glenn could pass the same physical examination the younger astronauts took. Glenn performed research on the subject, and passed the physical examination. On January 16, 1998, NASA Administrator Dan Goldin announced that Glenn would be part of the STS-95 crew; this made him, at age 77, the oldest person to fly in space. (Wikipedia)
Colonel John Glenn was photographed by Karsh at the Manned Spacecraft Center in New York. See more.
On October 6, we held a celebration of Estrellita’s life at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Arthur Miller was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955). He wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman is considered one of the best American plays of the 20th century. Miller was born on this day, October 17, in 1915 (d. 2005). He was photographed by Karsh for “American Legends.”
The Walt Disney Company was formed as an animation studio 102 years ago today by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Oliver Disney. Disney now operates the largest television and film studio in Hollywood.
This stamp, featuring a detail from Karsh’s “Smiling Churchill” portrait, is coming soon from France’s mail service La Poste. “International Letter stamps allow you to frank your mailings worldwide.” Most people are more familiar with the belligerent Churchill portrait, but after Churchill’s initial outrage at having a portrait thrust upon him, he relaxed and permitted Mr. Karsh to take one more photograph, saying, “You could even make a roaring lion stand still to be photographed.” Read more.
Clyde F. Barker was the University of Pennsylvania’s longest-serving Chair of the Department of Surgery where he initiated the University’s transplant program by performing a kidney transplant, one of only a small number in the world that still functioned 50 years later. Barker died this month at the age of 93.
Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist and Nobel laureate, Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, in 1928 (d. 2016). Karsh noted in American Legends: “In his book-lined study, I found an erudite storyteller, a Holocaust survivor who has retained a bittersweet sense of life and placed it in the service of worldwide peace and human rights.”
Please join Julie Grahame, Senior Representative for the Estate of Yousuf Karsh, for a talk at the National Arts Club in New York City on October 28, 2025, at 12pm, as part of the Club’s exhibition “Influence and Identity | Twentieth Century Portrait Photography from the Bank of America Collection,” which includes nine Karsh photographs alongside those of Avedon, Abbott, Steichen, and more.
The talk will include Karsh’s own anecdotes, including the remarkable tale of the making of his famous 1941 portrait of Winston Churchill.
The event is free and open to the public but you must register here.
On this day in 1789, the Judiciary Act establishing the Supreme Court of the United States was passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington. Sandra Day O’Connor (1930-2023) was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice, from 1981 to 2006, and her portrait has just recently been added to this website.
On September 15, 1978, boxer Muhammad Ali defeated Leon Spinks at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans to win the world heavyweight boxing title for the third time in his career, the first fighter ever to do so.
This Karsh portrait of Ali is currently on-view at New York’s National Arts Club. Free and open to the public, the exhibition, “Influence and Identity Twentieth Century Portrait Photography from the Bank of America Collection,” includes ten Karsh prints along with works from Richard Avedon, Edward Steichen and many more. Now through November 26, 2025.
Karsh wrote of his meeting with Muhammad Ali, “I photographed (Ali) in 1970, as part of a series of young people for ‘Look’ Magazine… Muhammad Ali arrived at my New York studio with a breathless young editor trailing behind. They had jogged together from the ‘Look’ offices, the young editor carrying Ali’s heavy portable telephone which Ali said kept him in ‘constant contact with the world.’ Since the editor was a slight young man, I smiled to myself as I imagined this improbable duo and the incredulous stares of the passers-by as they made their way up Madison Avenue. ‘The Greatest’ and I talked about his triumphs, about patent medicine, about the commercials he was making, but there was for me no real contact. The pinstriped suit he wore for our sitting was chosen not for business but to command the respect he rightly felt he deserved.”
For 125 years, New York’s National Arts Club has been providing “art for all.” Now through November 26, 2025, they are showing a selection of prints in an exhibition titled “Influence and Identity: Twentieth Century Portrait Photography from the Bank of America Collection.” We are thrilled to report there are nine Karsh portraits in the show, including Jacques Cousteau, Georgia O’Keeffe, Winston Churchill, Pablo Casals, and Muhammad Ali. This is the largest number of Karsh prints on-view in New York for some time.
The Arts Club is free and open to the public with extended hours this Saturday, September 13, from 10am – 4pm, for Community Day. Go on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Tilden Mansion, a National Historic Landmark, and enjoy live music, kids’ activities, see the exhibition, and more.
Scottish biologist, physician, microbiologist, and pharmacologist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in September, 1928, going on to share the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain. Fleming was photographed at St. Mary’s Hospital in London.
Yousuf Karsh photographed dozens of subjects related to the world of medicine, including several Nobel Prize winners. All 15,000+ sittings are searchable on this website. See a second portrait of Alexander Fleming, or search on a keyword such as “medicine” and see who you find!
Da’Vine Joy Randolph is an American actress who was named one of 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2024. Randolph closed out last weekend’s “Filming Italy Venice Award” red carpet in a custom blush Alfredo Martínez gown. According to the Red Carpet Fashion Awards website, “Inspired by a 1958 portrait of Italian icon Gina Lollobrigida shot by Yousuf Karsh, this gown was a nod to cinematic history.”
Randolph gained recognition for her portrayal of psychic Oda Mae Brown in the Broadway production of Ghost (2012), for which she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
On August 28, 1962, Yousuf and Estrellita Karsh were married. They met in March 1961 when Karsh was in Chicago on assignment to photograph Dr. Walter C. Alvarez. As Alvarez’ medical editor, Estrellita helped bring his writing to millions of readers through his syndicated newspaper columns, articles and books – she had a talent for turning complex scientific ideas into accessible content for everyday readers.
In Maria Tippett’s biography “Portrait in Light and Shadow” it is noted that their courtship had “an unpromising beginning,” with Estrellita later recalling she was “past the panic side of twenty-five” and quite content with her independent lifestyle. After 15 months of Yousuf traveling to Chicago and Estrellita visiting Ottawa, they married. The wedding was officiated by Bishop Fulton Sheen at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
Incidentally, press photographer William Lovelace’s portrait of the couple was the first image to be sent from New York to the Daily Express’s headquarters in London via the satellite Telstar, which had been launched earlier that year.
Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27, 1908 (d. 1973). Johnson was highly successful in passing domestic legislation including Medicare, Medicaid, legislation expanding civil rights and public broadcasting.
Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. He was photographed by Karsh in 1985, the year that Bernstein received his Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. It was also the year that Bernstein brought the European Community Youth Orchestra on a “Journey for Peace” tour across Europe and Japan, performing at the Hiroshima Peace Ceremony to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the bombing.
Bernstein was born on this day, August 25, in 1918 (d. 1990).
Rosalynn Carter was an American writer, activist and humanitarian who served as the first lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981, as the wife of President Jimmy Carter. Throughout her decades of public service, she was a leading advocate for women’s rights and mental health. Carter was born on this day, August 18, in 1927 (d. 2023).
The Princess Royal turns 75 this week.
Anne had two children with her husband Mark Phillips: Peter and Zara, who are pictured here at Balmoral Castle in 1987 with their cousins, Prince William (left) and Prince Harry (seated), and Her Majesty the Queen with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Ralph Johnson Bunche was an American political scientist, diplomat, and leading actor in the mid-20th-century decolonization process and US civil rights movement, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Israel. Bunche was born on this day, August 7, in 1903 (1971).
He is the first Black Nobel laureate and the first person of African descent to be awarded a Nobel Prize. Bunche was involved in the formation and administration of the United Nations and played a major role in both the decolonization process and numerous peacekeeping operations sponsored by the UN. In 1963, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President John F. Kennedy.
At the UN, Bunche gained such fame that Ebony magazine proclaimed him perhaps the most influential African American of the first half of the 20th century.
See our other Bunche portraits.
Andy Warhol was born on this day, August 6, in 1928. Karsh photographed Warhol in 1979, ten years after Warhol founded Interview magazine, whose office at 860 Broadway, NYC, is noted in Karsh’s original records.