Born: December 23th 1908
Died: July 13th 2002
Place of birth: Turkey
Died: July 13th 2002
Place of birth: Turkey
Yousuf Karsh was an Armenian and Canadian portrait photographer. Also according to the metropolitan museum of art he is one of the greatest portrait photographers of the twentieth century who achieved a distinct style in his theatrical lighting. His body of work includes portraits of statesmen, artists, musicians, authors, scientists and men and women of accomplishment. His extraordinary and unique portfolio presents the viewer with an intimate and compassionate view of humanity. He fled on foot with his family to Syria and two years later his father was able to send him to Canada where he joined his uncle a photographer in Sherbrooke. Yousuf began working for his uncle and learning the art and science of photography. As well as this he was introduced to artificial lighting techniques which formed the basis for his use of dramatic lighting in his portraits. Yousuf used carefully arranged lighting to meticulously model his subjects faces thereby obtaining a monumental and idealized presentation that helped promote their public image and most of his portraits were taken in black and white. Later with the help from his uncle he established a studio and he was given the opportunity to photography great artists and actors which he took some amazing portraits of some famous and important people from Albert Einstein to Winston Churchill to Martin Luther king. This is where his intreats for photography and art in general started from because in the beginning he was just assisting his uncle but later began to develop key skills which were recognised for him to be a future photographer. The prime minister of Canada at the time also approached Yousuf and organised a way for his photograph to be taken by Yousuf who was at the time one of the best photographers in Canada. His photography is very simple when you initially look at it as it just captures the photographs without a background as they have a backdrop to divert the intention to the main subject of the image.
"Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness."
"Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera."
My favourite picture
This picture was very facinating to me because the man in the suit and backdrop combine with each other like he is part of the backdrop and connected to it and the lines in his hair and on the paintbrush look incredible because it's taking portraits to a whole new level. Also you can see the lights that are shining in his hair on the sides and the messy hairs on the top that are all over the place and you can see the detail in his face which looks like grease on his face. We see that his suit is black which complements the colour of the backdrop at the back which mixes together really well and the top of his face is brighter and the lower body is darker so most of the studio lights were shining on his face and reflecting on his hands. As well as this most of his pictures lack the eye contact and the connection between the audience and the subject in his images because if you look closely his eyes are facing sideways which again goes against the use of communication and the audience would follow his eyes to look where he is looking and therefore this could add an element of leading line. He uses some pixelation in his pictures in the places where there is lots of black to make the picture look old and interesting like he has taken his pictures with an old camera.