bout de papier, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2008) — Summer 2008 // Été 2008, pp. 17–18
PORTRAIT IN LIGHT AND SHADOW:
THE LIFE OF YOUSUF KARSH by
Maria Tippett, House of Anansi Press Inc.,
Toronto, 2007, 426 pp., $39.95.
As one passes through the rooms just off the lobby of Ottawa’s Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel one can’t help but think of highly acclaimed photographer Yousuf Karsh. Several of his brilliant black-and-white portraits are prominently displayed on its hallowed walls.
Karsh actually moved into a suite of rooms on the third floor of the Chateau in 1982. He transported his Karsh of Ottawa studio to the 6th floor of the Chateau in 1972, where it remained until 1992 — when he retired at 83 years of age. He was indeed a celebrity and I always hoped to run into him there, but alas this never happened.
Besides being hailed as the “Rembrandt of Photography,” he is the only Canadian — and the only photographer — to be named as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century by International Who’s Who. Many of us would recognize one of his portraits if we saw it, but probably don’t know very much about the man. Historian Maria Tippett has brought the “icon-maker” alive in this book. This is the first biography based on the Karsh archive and was written with the full blessing of his family and colleagues.
Yousuf Karsh was a refugee from the 1916 ethnic cleansing of Turkish Armenians; he made his home in Ottawa and then in Boston after retirement. During his 60-year career he travelled the world photographing political leaders, monarchs, film stars, business leaders and artists.
In the preface to her book, cultural historian Tippett writes that “Karsh rose to become court photographer to the powerful and famous. He lived in the spotlight. Countless newspaper articles and magazine profiles told his story over and over again, and Karsh presented himself for posterity in his own autobiographical writings. But, even at the height of his fame, few people really knew Karsh or fully understood his achievements.” In this book, Tippett has helped to shine significant light on this extraordinary man.
Born in 1908, Karsh was from another era, with his old-world and old-fashioned manners. He arrived in Canada when he was 12 from Syria where his family had fled. At 15, in 1923, he was sent to live with his uncle George Nakash, a photographer who lived in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Karsh attended school briefly and then apprenticed in his uncle’s studio. Karsh never gave much credit in print to his uncle but he obviously had a major effect on Karsh’s career. In 1928, his uncle arranged for him to apprentice with portrait photographer John Garo in Boston, where he stayed for two years.
Then in 1931 during the Depression, he moved to Ottawa. At the time, the local people were xenophobic toward immigrants and especially toward those who looked or sounded different. At first, it was difficult for Karsh to find a place to live.
A year later he met Solange Gauthier, who would become his first wife, at the Ottawa Drama League where he was taking photographs. Solange was originally from France. What she and Karsh wanted was to become accepted by their adopted country — Karsh wanted to become the most famous portrait photographer in the country and they set out to achieve this by associating with the famous. He made many of his first high-profile contacts through the Ottawa Drama League.
In 1933, Karsh took over his former bosses’ studio at 130 Sparks Street. He mounted exhibitions which attracted potential clients and his photos were published in magazines such as Saturday Night. His photos of the Governor General Lord Bessborough and his wife were published in the international press. He became the official photographer of Canada’s governors general and PM Mackenzie King. He presented talks at camera clubs and conferences and went to meet celebrated photographers such as Edward Steichen in New York.
Yousuf brought his younger brother Malak to Ottawa in 1937 and Malak went on to become one of Canada’s leading documentary photographers. Meanwhile, Yousuf eventually became one of the most well-known portrait photographers of the 20th century, always producing photographs that showed his subjects in their best light.
His wife Solange managed the studio and the accounts, smoothed things over when Karsh lost his temper with the staff, and researched every important client so Karsh could ask questions that would impress and flatter his subjects during a sitting. If the person was famous, she later prepared a typed manuscript of the conversation that had taken place. She made sure that he photographed any personality who visited Ottawa. Later on, news agencies and magazines also provided him with questions to ask his subjects.
Besides his considerable talent, luck, and success at self-promotion, he was helped along the way “by the entrepreneurial skills of his two wives (and business managers) and the carefully cultivated patronage of the Canadian government.”
Tippett presents a fascinating account of how Karsh came to photograph presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens, princesses, civil servants, diplomats, military officers, businessmen, artists, writers, musicians in the United States and Europe, often with the help of the Department of External Affairs. For example, Norman Robertson helped him get to England in 1943 and Vincent Massey assisted him once he arrived; he then produced 60 portraits which laid the “foundations of his international portfolio.”
If there is one image that brought international fame to then 33-year-old Karsh, it is the one of Winston Churchill — “the Roaring Lion” — taken in 1941. Karsh had had the nerve to remove Churchill’s cigar from his lips just before he clicked the shutter. Tippett has reproduced 60 of Karsh’s 50,000 legendary portraits in the book, including those of Bogart, Hemingway, Churchill, the Kennedys, Castro, Picasso, Einstein, the Clintons, Khrushchev, Trudeau, Queen Elizabeth II, to name a few. These photographs are conveniently placed exactly where they are referred to in the text.
The author recounts how Karsh’s profits grew over the years (she had access to his accounts) and writes about the other companies he and Solange started. Besides the Karsh Studio, there was Little Wings, set up in 1946, which handled advertising and publicity, and Karsh of Ottawa which they established in an apartment in New York City in 1955.
Tippett presents intimate vignettes of Karsh’s romantic and family life and of his relations with his staff. We learn about his two marriages to strong, supportive women — Solange died in 1961 and he subsequently married the American medical writer, editor and researcher Estrellita Nachbar in 1962.
Karsh maintained the copyright to every photograph he took. Sales to publishers of photographs of prominent statesmen, and later celebrities, helped his profits grow. Within 15 years of establishing his studio, Karsh had become internationally acclaimed. The name Karsh was a household name across Canada, even for those who didn’t know much about photography.
Karsh entered the world of photojournalism at the right time. Many magazines were hitting the newsstands in the 1940s. He was also allowed to provide written copy to accompany his photographs. He was commissioned by major publications to travel to photograph dignitaries, celebrities, and business executives. He took on advertising assignments as well. When he photographed in the US and Britain, External Affairs provided transport of his proofs back to Ottawa or anywhere else he wanted to send them via diplomatic bag. The post-war expansion of Canada’s embassies throughout Europe meant that there were more ambassadors to help Karsh make contact with his subjects.
Tippett often details Karsh’s shooting techniques and said that “if there was a ‘Karsh secret’ then it lay in recognizing, and then in showing, that a good portrait was the result of a collaboration between the subject and the photographer.” In 1946, his first book, Faces of Destiny, Portraits by Karsh was published and in 1959, his second book, Portraits of Greatness, was released. Thirteen more books of his photographs were to follow over the years.
In his last “sickly” years Karsh proudly wore his Order of Canada pin on his pyjamas while in hospital. He had been made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1967 and later became a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1990. As an immigrant to Canada, he had often experienced negative stereotyping because he looked and spoke
differently than others. For a long time, Armenians were considered to be
“non-preferred” immigrants. As Tippett says and cites with examples, “Even after he achieved critical acclaim and financial success, he was subjected to ethnic prejudice in Canada.” But Tippett also emphasized, “Tf every immigrant’s wish, as Canadian writer Peter C. Newman has
observed, is to move from the periphery of society to the centre and to ‘ingratiate themselves into the core of their adopted country’, then Karsh had certainly done this by 1992.”
This publication actually marks his centenary in 2008 (he died in 2002 at the age of 94), and complements retrospective exhibitions in institutions such as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Art
Institute of Chicago, the Boston Public Library and Rhode Island School of Design. Interestingly, as far as I know, no
retrospectives will be showing in Canada this year.
Overall, Tippett presents an important, in-depth portrait of a Canadian who achieved international recognition for his profound vision. His portraits of famous men and women were accessible to all who viewed them.
One doesn’t have to be a photographer, nor even knowledgeable about photography, in order to enjoy and appreciate this book. Karsh’s life was long and it covered an incredible period in the world’s history. During his lifetime this talented Canadian was able to capture unforgettable portraits of some of the most notable players on the world stage and for that reason alone he should be remembered and honoured.
View the original scanned pages →
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2008) — Summer 2008 // Été 2008, pp. 17–18. Read the rest of this issue →
