Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh, whose pictures of British politician Winston Churchill, scientist Albert Einstein and author Ernest Hemingway earned his widespread recognition around the world, died here Saturday at 93, according to a local hospital official.
Karsh died at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital at 12:15 pm (1615 GMT), said hospital representative Jacqui Fowler.
Karsh was born to Armenian parents in Turkey in 1908, but the family fled the country in the wake of World War I-era Armenian massacres, according to his biography.
His uncle, photographer George Nakash, brought him to Canada in 1924.
After an apprenticeship in Boston, Karsh settled in Ottawa in 1932, where he began his professional career.
”Within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can,” he said once about his work.
He began photographing visiting dignitaries, including then-US president Franklin Roosevelt, as early as 1936.
In December 1941, he made a portrait of a defiant Churchill, which later became a symbol of Britain’s courage and fighting spirit during World War II and brought Karsh international recognition.
The photograph was taken on short notice, minutes after Churchill delivered a rousing address at the House of Commons. Karsh asked the British leader to take his trademark cigar out of his mouth and, when he ignored the request, stepped forward and snatched it from Churchill’s mouth.
The picture captured an irate Churchill glowering at the photographer. But the rough handling notwithstanding, the British leader allowed Karsh to take another shot, saying, ”You can even make a roaring lion stand still to be photographed.”
The famous photograph has since appeared in publications and on commemorative stamps all over the world.
In book ”Faces of Destiny” published in 1946, Karsh said that his purpose was capture the images of famous people and present them ”both as they appeared to me and as they impressed themselves on their generation.”
Karsh’s work is represented in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Philadelphia Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Canada and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
The bulk of his pictures, including about 250 000 negatives and 50 000 original prints, belongs to the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa.
Karsh is survived by his second wife, Estrellita Maria Nachbar. – Sapa-AFP