Passionate, inspiring and truly gifted, Yousuf Karsh is a renowned photographer of his era. Acclaimed for his portrait photography, Karsh is loved and admired for his work across the globe. His work encompasses prominent figures from the streams of science, cultural studies and politics of the 20th century. These include names like Martin Luther King, Robert Bordon, Marshall McLuhan, Martha Graham, Albert Einstein, John F Kennedy, W Somerset Maugham and Peter Lorre. His work is exhibited to this day in several art galleries and published in photography magazine. He is especially known for his stunning captures of Helen Keller, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway and Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

Karsh was born in the eastern part of the Ottoman Empire and later immigrated to Canada as an Armenian rescuer in 1924. He grew up with his uncle, George Nakash, who was a photographer himself.  Karsh spent most of his early years assisting his uncle in the studio and as he became more interested in photography, his schooling took a back seat. His uncle saw immense potential in Karsh and pushed him to train under a well-known portrait photographer named John Garo in Boston. From 1928 to 1931, Karsh trained under Garo and learned the intricacies of portrait photography from the talented photographer. 

In 1932, Karsh opened his own studio in Ottawa at the Chateau Laurier Hotel. It did not take long for the young photographer to make his mark as his impressive work caught the eye of the then Canadian Prime Minister, Mackenzie King. The prime minister introduced Karsh to other dignified personalities, which helped him get good exposure for his work and eventually attract several celebrities for getting their portraits.

Over the years he captured numerous well known faces but the photograph which won him international recognition was his portrait of Winston Churchill shot on 30th December, 1941 during World War II. This portrait appeared on the cover page of Life Magazine and earned Karsh the pedestal of a promising portrait photographer on a global scale. He later revealed that Churchill was not at all interested in photography and gave Karsh just two minutes to get the shot.

Karsh had the gift to capture the inner most feelings of his subjects. He believed that every human being has a secret and it is his job as a photographer to bring it out. He is known for his unique ability to light the hands of his subject in two different shades. He was also very particular about his camera, an 8x10 bellows Calumet, made in Chicago which helped him capture some of the most stunning portraits of all times.

In 1992, Karsh pulled down the shutter of his studio in Ottawa and focused more on publishing books that won over more admirers of his portraits. These books included narrations of every single photography session that he conducted.  

He left on his heavenly abode at the age of 93, in the year 2002. Yet his work is still alive and it continues to influence several photographers from all over the world.

	Interesting facts: Experimentation and improvisation were the foundation of Karsh’s first set of photographs from 1929 to 1941 as he expanded his technical prowess while working with artificial light. Karsh built on the success of his famous Winston Churchill portrait in the latter half of the 1940s by undertaking a lengthy project on postwar development of Canada for Maclean’s magazine which took about seventeen months to complete. In his entire career, Karsh produced more than 150,000 negatives over 15,312 settings.