Karsh, Yousuf, 1908-2002 : Yousuf Karsh was born in Mardin, Armenia, December 23, 1908. In 1924, he was brought to Canada by his Uncle, George Nakash, a photographer. After brief schooling in Sherbrooke, Quebec, he went to work for his uncle. He was apprenticed from 1928 to 1931 to John Garo of Boston, a noted portrait photographer. Karsh returned to work for his uncle briefly, but moved to Ottawa in 1932 to work for John Powis, and opened his own studio shortly thereafter. He became involved with the Ottawa Little Theatre in 1932, where he met his first wife Solange Gauthier. They married in 1939. This theatre connection also established contacts with many of the Ottawa political and cultural elite. As Karsh's work became known, members of Government, visiting statesmen and other dignitaries came to him to be photographed. Solange Karsh died in 1961, and Yousuf married Estrellita Maria Nachbar in 1962.
In December 1941 he made his famous portrait of Winston Churchill, in the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. Published on the cover of Life Magazine, this portrait is generally considered to have established Karsh's international career and reputation. During WWII, at the request of the Canadian Government, he went to England and made a series of portraits of the leading personalities of that period. Although known generally for his portraiture, Karsh has worked in a number of photographic genres. His oeuvre also includes a series of photographs of Canadian cities, a series on Canada and its people, substantial commercial work, depictions of factory workers, and movie stills. Yousuf Karsh was the first photographer to have a one-man exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada. At EXPO '67 he was the only artist to have a one-man exhibition of his work - 'Men Who Make Our World' a major exhibition of over 100 portraits, which also toured major museums in Europe and North America.
Karsh's work is represented in the permanent collections of not only Library and Archives Canada but also the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Portrait Gallery in London, England, the St. Louis Art Museum and the George Eastman House in Rochester. He has published a number of monographs of his work throughout his career, including an autobiography in 1962. Eight universities have conferred honorary degrees upon him, and he has been Visiting Professor in the School of Fine Arts at Ohio University. In 1965 Karsh was awarded the Canada Council Medal and in 1968 the Medal of Service of the Order of Canada. He was the first photographer to receive the Medal of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and the first to be made an Honorary Master of Photographic Arts by the Professional Photographers of Canada. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. In 1971 he was awarded the Presidential Citation (USA) for meritorious service on behalf of the handicapped. In 1975 he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Karsh closed the Karsh Studio at the Chateau Laurier and retired in 1992.
Karsh died on 13 July 2002 at Boston, Massachusetts, his home since leaving Ottawa in 1997.
