Book Review - "Karsh: Beyond the Camera"

BOOK REVIEW

“Karsh: Beyond the Camera” - By David Travis 

167 pages – David R. Godine

Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur

Like the magnificent San Francisco-born landscape photographer, Ansel Adams, Armenian-Canadian portraitist, Yousuf Karsh, worked exclusively in black and white images. Also, as was the case with Adams, his immigrant Middle Eastern contemporary, Karsh, became far and away the world’s dominant artist in his chosen field. 

Both photographers were born shortly after the turn of the 20^th Century and lived long, productive lives. Also, it is indicative of the men’s compositional genius that they were widely recognized for unmatched creativity during their lifetimes. Adams was awarded honorary degrees from both Harvard and Yale, while Karsh’s work has appeared on the postage stamps and currency of nations throughout the British Empire.

In this biographical Yousuf Karsh memoir (superbly printed in Lausanne, Switzerland), author David Travis employs a technique that is cleverly fashioned to work on three levels … visually … historically … and poignantly. The combination makes for a reading event that nearly defies description as a satisfying literary experience.

With each turned page of ‘Karsh: Beyond the Camera,’ we are treated to a splendid portrait of a legendary personality (in only a few rare cases did Karsh include more than one person in a photograph). On the page opposite each image, is a direct quote from Karsh himself involving the making of the facing portrait. Following that revealing verbatim recollection, author Travis, a renowned curator of modern photography, explains heretofore little known facts surrounding the history of Yousuf Karsh and his subjects.

Most recognizable of all the iconic images included in this fascinating collection is undoubtedly that of a glaring Winston Churchill. The wartime Prime Minister of Great Britain had (reluctantly) agreed to sit briefly for a single photograph during a 1941 trip to Canada’s capital, Ottawa where Karsh’s atelier was located. Of course, in Sir Winston’s mouth was the ever-present Churchill cigar. Feeling that the fat cigar hid too much of the Prime Minister’s photogenic face, Yousuf slyly approached the great man, plucked the stogie from between Churchill’s lips, and triggered the camera’s shutter release the instant he was able to step out of the picture’s frame.

“He looked so belligerent, he could have devoured me,” Karsh says in his accompanying note on the incident. But the insightful photographer had clearly detected what he wanted to see … and record … in that famous face. And he knew precisely how to produce it. 

When the portrait adorned the cover of Life Magazine shortly thereafter, Yousuf Karsh became nearly as celebrated as the luminaries who flocked to his studio. They included virtually every famous face of the mid-20^th Century: Einstein … Picasso … Elizabeth II … Hemingway … Jackie Kennedy. Everyone wanted to be immortalized by the Armenian genius by way of Ottawa, Canada … including my mother, Peggy.

When she was seventeen, Mom was working as a salesgirl at Simpson’s department store in her native Ottawa. A young man a few years Mother’s senior had recently opened a photography studio in town and he was shopping for a shirt. Yousuf Karsh approached my mother, introduced himself, and asked if she would consider posing for him the following weekend. Mom agreed … and the resulting portrait hangs in our Smithtown home on Stony Hill Path almost a century later.

Karsh’s cameras and other photographic equipment have been donated to the ‘Canada Science & Technology Museum’ … where they are on permanent display. ‘Library & Archives of Canada’ holds his complete collection of documents, portraits, prints, and negatives … including my mother Peggy’s.

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Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of a dozen novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His newest book, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between the late Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Ladouceur’s recently completed thriller, THE SOUTHWICK INCIDENT, is due next month. It involves a radicalized Yale student and his CIA pursuers. Mr. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com