Karsh of Ottawa dies at 93

Yousuf Karsh, a Canadian photographer whose camera captured many of the most influential figures of the 20th century, died Saturday. He was 93.

• YOUSUF KARSH: Canada's Portraitist

From royalty to scientists, from artists to presidents and prime ministers, Karsh produced distinct portraits that eventually made him as famous as some of those in front of his lens. Through it all he remained, as he signed his legendary photographs, "Karsh of Ottawa."

The long list of names included Trudeau, Churchill, Kennedy, Khrushchev, Castro, Shaw, Hemingway, and Einstein.

Karsh was born in Turkey on Dec. 23, 1908 and emigrated to Canada as a boy in 1924 to escape persecution for his Armenian roots. The teenager lived with his uncle, a photographer, in Sherbrooke, Que.

He didn't have money for medical school, so Karsh decided to take pictures instead. His uncle taught him some of the basics, then sent him off to study under John H. Garo, a respected portrait taker in Boston.

Karsh not only learned about the physics of light and lenses, but he also immersed himself in the culture of the old city's museums, art galleries, and concert halls.

When he finished his apprenticeship, he returned to Canada and set up shop in Ottawa in 1932 guessing that he would have a good chance to take pictures of famous foreigners if he was in a capital city. He was right, and his career developed quickly.

Karsh was praised as a master portraitist, often working in black and white, influenced by great painters of the past. He was famous for talking to his subjects as he was getting the shot's composition just right, asking them questions and putting them at ease.

Later, he wrote brief descriptions of these sessions and included them in the many books of photographs he published over the years. The vignettes offered a glimpse of the photographer himself as he talked about Einstein's feelings about religion or Churchill's scowl after Karsh removed a cigar from the mouth of the British prime minister during a shoot in 1941.

• FROM CBC TV: Life & Times: Yousuf Karsh

"Within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can," he wrote in Karsh Portfolio in 1967.

"The revelation, if it comes at all, will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture, a gleam of the eye, a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world. In that fleeting interval of opportunity the photographer must act or lose his prize."

His younger brother Malak, a popular Canadian landscape photographer, died last year at the age of 86.

• FROM NOVEMBER 9, 2001: Ottawa photographer Malak Karsh dies

Yousuf Karsh operated his studio out of the Chateau Laurier Hotel in downtown Ottawa until 1992. But he never really retired, concentrating on publishing and international exhibits in later years.

"I look forward to every working day," he once told CBC. "And I feel that I'm in one of the most exciting (occupations) in the whole world photography."

Karsh died in hospital in Boston on Saturday after complications following surgery, according to a spokesman. A private family funeral will be held in Ottawa.