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(CHURCHILL, Winston S.) KARSH, Yousuf.
Portrait photograph, 1941.
Karsh's most famous image. Yousuf Karsh (1908–2002), the Canadian photographer of Armenian heritage known as Karsh of Ottawa, is widely regarded as one of the most famous and accomplished portrait photographers of all time. Born in Turkey during the Armenian genocide, Karsh fled with his family to Syria. His parents sent him to live with his uncle, a photographer in Quebec, Canada, who arranged for him to apprentice with the portrait photographer John Garo in Boston, United States. Karsh returned to Canada and established a studio on Sparks Street in Ottawa, Ontario, close to Canada's seat of government. Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King discovered Karsh and arranged introductions with visiting dignitaries for portrait sittings. Karsh's work attracted the attention of varied celebrities, but his place in history was sealed on 30 December 1941 when he photographed Winston Churchill after Churchill gave his famous "Some chicken, some neck" speech to the Canadian House of Commons in Ottawa.The image of Churchill brought Karsh international prominence, and is claimed to be the most reproduced photographic portrait in history. The story is often told of how Karsh created his famous portrait. Churchill, the British prime minister, had just addressed the Canadian Parliament and Karsh was there to record one of the century's great leaders. "He was in no mood for portraiture and two minutes were all that he would allow me as he passed from the House of Commons chamber to an anteroom," Karsh wrote in Faces of Our Time. "Two niggardly minutes in which I must try to put on film a man who had already written or inspired a library of books, baffled all his biographers, filled the world with his fame, and me, on this occasion, with dread."Churchill marched into the room scowling, "regarding my camera as he might regard the German enemy." His expression suited Karsh perfectly, but the cigar stuck between his teeth seemed incompatible with such a solemn and formal occasion. "Instinctively, I removed the cigar. At this the Churchillian scowl deepened, the head was thrust forward belligerently, and the hand placed on the hip in an attitude of anger." The image captured Churchill and the Britain of the time perfectly – defiant and unconquerable. Churchill later said to him, "You can even make a roaring lion stand still to be photographed." As such, Karsh titled the photograph, The Roaring Lion. Karsh went on to photograph many of the great and celebrated personalities of his generation. Journalist George Perry wrote in The Sunday Times that "when the famous start thinking of immortality, they call for Karsh of Ottawa." Karsh published 15 books of his photographs, which include brief descriptions of the sessions, during which he would ask questions and talk with his subjects to relax them as he composed the portrait. Some famous subjects photographed by Karsh were Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer, Alexander Calder, Andy Warhol, Audrey Hepburn, Clark Gable, Dwight Eisenhower, Ernest Hemingway, Fidel Castro, Jacqueline Kennedy, Frank Lloyd Wright, General Pershing, George Bernard Shaw, Georgia O'Keeffe, Grey Owl, Helen Keller, Humphrey Bogart, Indira Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Laurence Olivier, Marian Anderson, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, Muhammad Ali, Pablo Casals, Pandit Nehru, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Paul Robeson, Joan Baez, Peter Lorre, Picasso, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Pope Pius XII, Pope John Paul II, Princess Elizabeth, Princess Grace, Prince Rainier of Monaco, Robert Frost, Ruth Draper, Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, the rock band Rush and of course his most famous portrait subject, Winston Churchill. Karsh said "My chief joy is to photograph the great in heart, in mind, and in spirit, whether they be famous or humble." His work is in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, New York's Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, Bibliothèque nationale de France, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the National Portrait Gallery of Australia and many others. Library and Archives Canada holds his complete collection, including negatives, prints and documents. His photographic equipment was donated to the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa.
Large gelatin silver print. Presented in handmade black and moongold frame. Framed size: 580 x 700 mm 510×402 mm. Deep and strongly contrasted studio print.
