ROCKFORD ART MUSEUM | COLLECTION | PHOTOGRAPHY

Yousuf Karsh

Yousuf Karsh was born in 1908 in Mardin, Armenia (now Turkey). At age 16 after suffering the horrors of the Armenian massacres by the Turks, he immigrated to Syria and then to Canada where he worked for his uncle's studio. He apprenticed with John Garo in Boston before returning to Canada and setting up his own studio.

There he was discovered by Prime Minister Mackenzie King, who arranged for him to sittings of many prominent visiting dignitaries. Karsh gained international prominence with his portrait of Winston Churchill, which appeared on the cover of Life magazine in December 1941.

He is best know for his portraits of Ernest Hemingway, Albert Einstein, John F. Kennedy, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Steichen, Pablo Casals and Elizabeth II. Karsh's portraits provide insight into the individual through an emphasis on facial expression and the masterful use of dramatic studio lighting.

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