Loving Karsh

I was surfing around the net the other day and stumbled across the beautiful black and white portraits of Yousef Karsh, an Armenian born Canadian resident who died in 2002. The first thing that struck me about Karsh's portraits was his elegance and his dramatic use of studio lights., apparently he lit his subject's hands separately. Karsh photographed many of the great and celebrated personalities of his generation. and throughout most of his career he used the 8×10 bellows Calumet camera. Journalist George Perry wrote in the British paper The Sunday Times that "when the famous start thinking of immortality, they call for Karsh of Ottawa."

Karsh said "My chief joy is to photograph the great in heart, in mind, and in spirit, whether they be famous or humble."

Check out an article on him from the 60's....http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1xbKKjKkw8c/R-Kaia3d-gI/AAAAAAAAACY/iCDs7W_D0fk/s320/Ossip%2BZadkine-Yousuf%2BKarsh.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://samuel-merrin.blogspot.com/2008/03/gallery-of-greatness-by-yousuf-karsh.html&h=320&w=285&sz=19&hl=it&start=40&tbnid=eEpSRlp1ubLIyM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=105&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dyousef%2Bkarsh%26start%3D21%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Dit%26sa%3DN