The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is the second highest honor for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada.

They Desire a Better Country: The Order of Canada in 50 Stories (Figure 1 Publishing) includes portraits by Karsh, and, since he himself was a recipient of both the Companion of the Order of Canada (1990) and Officer of the Order of Canada (1967), Karsh has his own section in the book.

From the Publisher: “They write the soundtrack to our lives and spark our imagination with their words. They unite our communities through their service and push humanity forward in their unwavering quest for innovation. They are the Companions, Officers and Members of the Order of Canada, one of our country’s highest honours; and collectively they desire a better country.

“To celebrate the Order of Canada’s 50th anniversary in 2017, this exceptional book, featuring stunning photography, will showcase some of the remarkable individuals who have garnered this prestigious honour.”

Karsh portraits in the book include Kenojuak Ashevak, Lawren Harris, and Dr. Wilder Penfield.

Read more about the book.

Jill Delaney holds a Karsh negative from 1957 of John Diefenbaker, Canadian Leader of the Opposition. Photo by Simon Gardner.

In his last report for CBC news, on April 28th, 2017, correspondent Simon Gardner broadcast a segment all about this new website. Gardner interviewed Jerry Fielder, Curator and Director of the Karsh estate, via Skype, and visited Karsh expert Jill Delaney at the Library and Archives of Canada in Ottawa. CBC also ran an extensive article online.

It’s been 15 years since Yousuf Karsh died. At the time, digital was just starting to overtake film as the most popular photographic medium.

It’s perhaps long overdue, but now a much more complete picture of the great portrait photographer’s life and work is available online on a website devoted to his work that launched last month.

The website not only showcases Karsh’s best-known portraits, it reveals many previously unpublished or rarely seen photos of the photographer behind the scenes. – Simon Gardner

Click to read the whole article.

Watch the TV segment. (45 minutes in)

Architect I. M. Pei had his 100th birthday on April 26, 2017. Mr. Pei was photographed by Karsh twice in 1979.

From A Biography in Images:

“Buildings are for people to enjoy,” the Chinese-American architect told me. The appreciative millions who throng through his creative public buildings – the East Wing of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Kennedy Library and the addition to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Fragrant Hill Hotel outside Peking, or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland – respond instinctively to I. M.’s “dedication to humanity through architecture.”

See more I. M. Pei.

From the archives at LIFE Magazine, the memorial edition for John F. Kennedy after his death in 1963 featuring a portrait by Karsh from 1960.

See more John F. Kennedy by Yousuf Karsh.

Search the Sittings for all LIFE Magazine shoots.

Cover: Courtesy LIFE/The Picture Collection, Inc.

TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential Images of All Time” naturally includes Karsh’s “Roaring Lion” portrait of Winston Churchill, taken during the second World War, in 1941. Peter Pollack, Historian, writing for TIME, said: “The strength and power of Churchill’s face stiffened the resolution of the English people.”

Explore the photograph in TIME’s online gallery.

Read more about Churchill.

The Los Angeles Dodgers unveiled the first statue in Stadium history on the 70th anniversary of the day that Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier on April 15, 1947. A pre-game ceremony included Dodgers’ owner ‘Magic’ Johnson who said:

“I’m humbled to participate in the unveiling of the Jackie Robinson statue on the 70th anniversary of his Major League debut,” said Magic in a statement. “His impact exceeded beyond baseball, paving a way for me and African-American athletes across all sports. Beyond being an extraordinary athlete, Robinson was an extraordinary individual. The statue is a tribute to not only the rich history and success Robinson brought to the Dodgers organization, but the social impact he made on this country.” Read more at NBC San Diego.

Yousuf Karsh photographed Jackie Robinson in May, 1957.

© John Loengard

Celebrating the Negative is a study of the original film on which famous images have been captured by some of the most important photographers from the 19th and 20th centuries. Loengard’s pictures are of the photographers’ famous images as negatives – not prints.

“I photographed the negatives in this exhibition as quickly and simply as possible. I used a small camera on a tripod. Any light box, window or even a sunny wall would do as a background. I wanted to catch the moment when the negative first came out of its envelope and was shown with pride. How people touched the negative played subtly against the image on the film itself. At least, I felt this was so.

“I noticed that Richard Avedon held his negative barehanded. Imogen Cunningham’s son, Rondal Partridge, held hers that way too. Yousuf Karsh put on gloves, but he was holding his 1941 negative of Winston Churchill, a jewel in the National Archive of Canada. The archivists might have shot him dead had he touched it unprotected.” – John Loengard

John Loengard, Celebrating the Negative is available to museums as a touring exhibition from Curatorial Assistance. The book was originally published by Arcade Publishing in 1994.

Click to watch Yousuf Karsh and Morley Safer recreate the Churchill photograph.

Read an article from 2016 written by John Loengard in L’Oeil de la Photographie.

Joan Baez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017’s award ceremony, which took place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. “Baez’s unwavering dedication to activism shows that volume isn’t the only way to be loud – and totally rock and roll.”

Baez was photographed by Karsh in 1970, and 1979. Click here to see information about the Sittings.

Over in Postal History Corner, a blog from the Canadian Postal and Philatelist Society, you can read all about the process of producing a stamp in 1952.

“The Post Office Department began working on the first Queen Elizabeth definitive set one week after the death of George VI in February, 1952. Officials conferred on the selection of the photograph of the Queen from which a stamp model could be produced. A photo by noted Ottawa photographer Yousuf Karsh was chosen and approved by the Queen.”

1, 3 and 5¢ stamps were issued. Read more.

See all Sittings related to Elizabeth.

From the archives at LIFE Magazine. This cover from 1961 features a less well-known color portrait of Ernest Hemingway that Karsh made in 1957 during the same Sitting as the most famous of all Hemingway photographs: the roll-neck sweater.

See more Ernest Hemingway by Yousuf Karsh.

Search the Sittings for all LIFE Magazine shoots.

Cover: Courtesy LIFE/The Picture Collection, Inc.

In the April 3rd, 2017, issue of Macleans, Christine Sismondo wrote an article titled “The history and lessons of those ‘lock her up’ chants. What history – including the career of Agnes Macphail – can tell us about this fraught moment for women in politics.”

Ms. Macphail was the first woman elected to the Canadian House of Commons and one of the first two women elected to the Ontario legislature. She was photographed by Karsh in May, 1934. This photograph, signed by both, is from the collection at the Library and Archives, Canada.

Read the article in Macleans.

David Rockefeller, the banker and philanthropist, has died aged 101. He was photographed by Karsh on two occasions. In 1968 he sat for a Finance magazine assignment, and in 1991 was included in “Karsh: American Legends.”

Read the obituary in the New York Times.

More David Rockefeller by Yousuf Karsh.

See all Sittings related to the Rockefellers.

Estrellita Karsh with her Project 351 students © Mike Casey

Project 351 is a youth service nonprofit organization that develops a rising generation of “community-first” citizen leaders. Founded by Governor Deval Patrick in 2011 and now convened by Governor Charlie Baker, Project 351 fosters unity and strengthens the ethic of service through the engagement and enrichment of an 8th grade Ambassador from every city and town in Massachusetts.

Estrellita Karsh was recognized as a Service Hero for the 2017 Class at Project 351’s Annual Launch and Service Day, which is held each year on the weekend before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Carolyn Casey runs the organization on behalf of the Governor, and introduced Mrs. Karsh:

“The 19th century Russian author Maxim Gorky wrote: “The good qualities in our soul are most successfully and forcefully awakened by the power of art.”

“Estrellita Karsh has nourished and inspired thousands of souls in the United States and Canada through her cultural philanthropy. As wife and partner to her beloved husband, Yousuf Karsh, Mrs. Karsh bore witness to his brilliant artistry as the 20th century’s most sough-after portrait photographer. Mr. Karsh photographed every pop and American president during his lifetime – from Hoover to Clinton; and legions of prominent global citizens including Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Dr. King, and Mother Teresa. With each portrait, Mr. Karsh elevated the humanity of his subjects – inviting connection, contemplation, and compassion. Mrs. Karsh’s unique understanding of the powerful relationship between art and observer inspired her passion for art as a vehicle for healing. With visions both bold and beautiful, she has helped transform hospitals and health centers in two countries, including the “Bridge of Hope” mural project that connects Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Center. Today, because of Estrellita Karsh, thousands of patients travel a 200 foot passageway surrounded by a mural of brilliantly painted birds. Each singing a song of hope, encouraging every step as a journey toward healing and lifting each heart with the beauty of one woman’s vision.”

Mrs. Karsh’s team went off from Launch Day to do work at an elementary school in Boston. All the children go back to their local communities to continue their work locally, and then they will all reconvene in May at Gillette Stadium for a program-end celebration.

Author, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Auschwitz survivor, Elie Wiesel, died in June, 2016.

Elie Wiesel was photographed by Karsh in 1991.

Read the obituary in the New York Times.