of the black-and-white printing process in Garo’s stu-
dio and continued perfecting the process to support
the subtle range of texture and light in his photo-
graphs. During this period Karsh was associated
with the Ottawa Little Theatre where he met actress
Solange Gauthier, whom hemarried in 1939. There he
was also exposed to new potential in lighting and
directing subjects that brought a more dramatic and
chiseledsculptingofimages,suchasRomeo and Juliet,
1933,whichsuitednewspaperandmagazinereproduc-
tion. By the mid-1930s, Karsh had developed a style
that demonstrated his talent in shaping light, produ-
cing a stylish, more-angular composition than was
fashionable in the conservative post-colonial era
Ottawa where he had settled. His association with the
LittleTheatrealsoledtoacommissionfromthethea-
tre’s patrons, Lord and Lady Bessborough, repre-
sentatives of the King of England in Canada.
During these early years, as he became known
across Canada asKarsh of Ottawa, he experimented
with photography and entered international salon
exhibitions. Karsh also built his reputation through
society sittings and photographing personalities vis-
iting Ottawa, such as character actress Ruth Dra-
per, singer and activist Paul Robeson, and British
royalty Lord Louis Mountbatten. Through Cana-
da’s leader, William Lyon Mackenzie King, he was
appointed to photograph Winston Churchill and
captured the image by which the world remembers
this pugnacious, fearless leader.
Karsh traveled again to London in 1943 where he
photographed dozens of personalities that were first
published in English popular illustrated magazines
and the bookFaces of Destiny, 1946, beginning his
portfolio of international celebrities. In 1944, he
undertook the first of manyLifemagazine assign-
ments, portraying some 70 Washington, D.C. per-
sonalities. In the following year, he photographed
the participants of the pre-United Nations San
Francisco Conference, adding to his collection of
what he called ‘‘people of consequence.’’ Karsh also
received his first advertising assignments during this
period, in which he promoted Kodak film and made
portraits of distinguished musicians for RCA Vic-
tor. Karsh continued to photograph celebrities and
travel around the world adding royalty, heads of
state, Nobel Prize laureates, and spiritual leaders,
and amassed an evocative volume of portraits.
Karsh’s images were widely published in magazines
and he produced a series of books that in addition
to the pictures, recounted his experience with each
sitter creating an impression about his subjects that
was larger than the words or pictures alone. Some
of his best-known portraits were made in the 1950s,
includingGeorgia O’Keeffe, 1956, andErnest Hem-
mingway, 1957. Karsh constantly traveled, accom-
panied by his second wife, Estrellita Nachbar,
whom he married in 1962, preferring to photograph
his subjects in their own environments even though
his initial success had been as a studio artist.
Although primarily known as a celebrity photogra-
pher, Karsh undertook two key assignments to por-
tray everyday people for industrial commissions and
the Canadian news magazineMaclean’s.Theindus-
trial profiles bestowed a heroic, dignified status on
front-line workers, presenting strong, inspirational
portraits, such asRear Window (Gow Crapper),
1951, for Ford of Canada and equally compelling
portraits for Canada’s Atlas Steel. The factory setting
presented compositional and lighting challenges that
Karsh met through combining negatives from var-
ious exposures. A profile of Canada’s cities assigned
byMaclean’srequired Karsh to personify the coun-
try, swelling with post-war prosperity. The series
sketched the regions and captured the public’s con-
ception of its identity, not surprisingly often using
portraits of people to illustrate the geography of the
country, such asFarmer by His House, ca. 1952.
The majority of Karsh’s photography was in
black and white and developed by inspection with
his own formula for gold-toned prints that are espe-
cially archival. The color photographs he produced,
mainly in the 1940s and 1990s, were dye transfers
realized through a printer in New York. The unique
and impressive style that Karsh developed in this
period influenced countless photography students,
and he also touched many students while serving as
a visiting professor at numerous universities in
North America.
Over his 60-year career Karsh photographed more
than half of the International Who’s Who Millennium
list of the ‘‘100 most influential figures of the twentieth
century’’ and was also the only photographer included
in the list. Karsh’s images have been widely dissemi-
nated in publications and have appeared on stamps
around the world. He received the Companion of
the Order of Canada and countless honors, including
degrees from more than 13 universities. In 1987,
the National Archives of Canada purchased Karsh’s
archives of negatives, color transparencies, and over
50,000 original prints. Karsh’s images are in collec-
tions around the world and have been exhibited inter-
nationally, including in Japan, Australia, Argentina,
Canada, and the United States, and a definitive retro-
spective in Berlin in 2000. Karsh died in Boston,
Massachusetts, July 13, 2002 at 94-years-old.
JanetYate
Seealso:Life Magazine; Photography in Canada;
Pictorialism; PortraitureKARSH, YOUSUF