James Baquet

    Premier portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) was born in what was then the Ottoman Empire, now Turkey, in an old city overlooking the Tigris River. After he saw relatives die in the Armenian Genocide, and his sister died of starvation in the upheaval, his family sent the 16-year-old to an uncle in Canada.

    There, he found his calling. His uncle was a photographer, and Karsh assisted in his studio. He was sent at 20 to apprentice with another professional photographer in Boston, and returned to Ottawa four years later to set up a studio — first with a partner, then on his own.

    Karsh was considered a master of formal studio portraiture, and was especially adept at lighting. One of his “tricks of the trade” was to light the subjects’ hands separately from their faces.

    Ottawa is Canada’s capital, and when the prime minister, Mackenzie King, discovered Karsh’s talent, he began sending celebrities and visiting dignitaries to Karsh for sittings. Thus it was that in 1941, he made a portrait of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill — a portrait which is not only Karsh’s most famous, but some claim that it has been reproduced more than any other photo portrait in history. Not bad for a refugee. A British journalist wrote of Karsh, “when the famous start thinking of immortality, they call for Karsh of Ottawa.”

    The secret of his success? He wrote: “Within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can. The revelation, if it comes at all, will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture, a gleam of the eye, a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world. In that fleeting interval of opportunity the photographer must act or lose his prize.”

    He also said, “My chief joy is to photograph the great in heart, in mind, and in spirit, whether they be famous or humble.”

    This work ethic led to his being named Companion of the Order of Canada, one of Canada’s highest honors.

    Vocabulary:

    Which word above means:

    1. disturbance, turmoil

    2. philosophy of labor

    3. brief

    4. wholesale killing of a people

    5. people of high rank

    6. skillful

    7. ability to live forever

    8. become a formal assistant to learn a trade

    9. secrets known to those in a profession

    10. one who has escaped a dangerous place and moved to another country