Icons of the 20th Century: Yousuf Karsh on Display at the Mona Bismarck

To achieve the beauty of his art, and the beauty of the 20th century world, the Canadian photographer had to live out some of the darkest hours, as he was born in the midst of the Armenian genocide. Constrained by the war, he fled with his family and emigrated to Syria in 1922. From there, his destination was turned upside down when he was sent to Canada in 1924, where he lived with his uncle Georges Nakash, a renowned portrait artist from Sherbrooke. Uneducated until the age of 16, he got more than just a simple schooling in Canada. The countryside of this small town would mark his artistic infancy when John H. Garo, also a portrait artist and fellow Armenian, would take him under his wing in Boston.

His apprenticeship touched on technical aspects: conception, compositions studied during art history courses on Rembrandt and Velazquez, the chemical process, or development techniques, just as much as human ones. According to his “professor”, art is never fortuitous and is born from the interaction produced and created between the model and the photographer, like a sort of bond established between them that becomes an indirect one with the spectator. What you see and feel in front of these photographs dressed in a classic and elegant black and white is just as much a deep sense of detail as an exaggerated sensitiveness but especially an access to another human being that isn’t buried beneath layers of fame and makeup. Yousuf Karsh was captivated by the greats of this world and made them his creed, revealing that “every man, every woman hides a secret. My job is to reveal it, if I can.” he concludes.

From then, he moved to Ottawa, an undertaking that gave him the chance to approach the political world. Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill would appear before Yousuf Karsh’s lens, transforming his portraits into public icons and entering into history forever. Pablo Picasso, Albert Einstein, and Grace Kelly among others would soon follow suit, painting a complete political, literary, and artistic encyclopedia of the 20th century. Yousuf Karsh is a witness of his time and uses this to achieve an absolute perfection in aesthetics as well as in emotion. He himself said it well: “a photographer is the expression of an impression”, adding in his fascination for “conveniently representing true greatness with a camera.”