MFA exhibit on Yousuf Karsh reveal the man and his life’s work
Yousuf Karsh almost didn’t get to shoot the portrait of Winston Churchill that propelled the photographer to fame. In the exhibit ``Karsh 100: A Biography in Images'' at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, you can see the 1941 iconic photograph of a dour, defiant looking Churchill and read Karsh’s account of taking the photograph. Karsh’s first challenge was to get the prime minister to agree to a portrait, his second was to get the cigar out of his mouth, and the third was to shoot under pressure since an impatient Churchill had allowed ``just one.''
``To get the giant to walk grudgingly from his corner to where my lights and camera were set up some little distance away was a feat!,'' Karsh wrote. ``Churchill’s cigar was ever present. I held out an ashtray, but he would not dispose of it. I went back to my camera and made sure that everything was all right technically. I waited; he continued to chomp vigorously at his cigar. I waited. Then I stepped toward him and, without premeditation, but ever so respectfully, I said, ``Forgive me, sir,'' and plucked the cigar out of his mouth. By the time I got back to my camera, he looked so belligerent he could have devoured me. It was at that instant that I took the photograph.''
In his account, you can see the qualities Karsh brought to bear during his 60-year career of photographing the leading figures of the 20th century.
``His success had a lot to do with who he was a person,'' said Anne Havinga, curator of the exhibit, which runs through Jan. 19. ``He was a gentleman and worldly and worked hard to get the image he wanted. He seemed to understand his subjects. For them, having a portrait taken by Karsh could be scary because they knew it would monumentalize them and preserve them into eternity.''
Although visitors are likely to have seen reproductions of some of the portraits, they hold more power when viewed up close. The play of light and shadow, the details of skin, and the intensity of gaze, all are sharper.
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In the photos of Albert Einstein, Dwight Eisenhower, Audrey Hepburn and many of the others, the frame is filled by just the face, or in some cases, the upper body and hands as well. But some subjects are placed in context. Pablo Picasso seems to lean against a large ceramic urn painted with a nude; Glenn Gould hunches over the piano; Tennessee Williams sits behind his typewriter with a cigarette in hand; and Jackie Kennedy stands in front of a Chinese screen wearing an evening gown and seeming to ponder something out of view.
``He carefully staged all the photos,'' Havinga said.
For Jackie Kennedy, ``He picked the props, placed the screen and arranged her clothes.''
Through this deliberate approach, Karsh, in his own words, tried to ``lay bare the soul'' of ``the great in spirit'' and to capture on film ``the inward power'' and ``elusive secret that hides in everyone.''
Whether to connect with his subjects or to pursue his own curiosity, he conversed with them about the issues they cared about, taking the time to research them. In a 1948 transcript of a far ranging conversation with Albert Einstein, he asked about the scientist’s understanding of immortality and Russian imperialism.
``His secret was to form a rapport with people, not in the Pollyanish sense, but in the sense that everyone was important to him,'' said Karsh’s wife, Estrellita Karsh, who spoke at the press opening and donated to the exhibit some of Karsh’s personal items. ``There was a wonderful human being behind the photographs, and I wanted to show it to Boston, which he loved so much.''
Karsh photographed more than half of the 100 most influential people listed in the 2000 edition of ``Who’s Who in the World.'' You get a sense of the status he achieved by a copy of a 1951 newspaper story with the headline: ``Princess Sends for Karsh,'' which accompanies photos of Queen Elizabeth and other members of the royal family.
All the exhibit photos are in black and white, except for a color photo of a radiant, smiling Sophia Lauren. Karsh preferred black and white because he could control the processing, Havinga said. Using a large format camera on a tripod and a variety of lights, he worked with 8-by-10-inch negatives. His equipment, which collectively could weigh more than 100 pounds, also is on display. He had three sets of equipment, stored in Ottawa, New York and London.
In addition to 47 portraits, the exhibit includes Karsh’s early work. On view is the landscape photo he shot as a young man, which won first prize in a photo contest and alerted his uncle to his potential and set the stage for his apprenticeship from 1928-1931 to the prominent Boston photographer John H. Garo.
Karsh, who traveled alone from Syria to Quebec at age 17 to live will his uncle, spent the bulk of his prolific career in Canada and produced 150,000 negatives.
``He considered himself a photographer who could do anything and didn’t limit himself to portraiture,'' Havinga said.
To illustrate that, the exhibit also includes photos Karsh took throughout Canada of people in in factories, farm and villages, as well as photos of the performers in the Ottawa Little Theater, where he learned about artificial lighting.
Born in 1908 in Armenia-in-Turkey, Karsh considered Boston ``his spiritual home,'' his wife said and returned to live in Boston until his death in 2002. Their donations have given the MFA the largest collection of Karsh photographs of any museum in the United States. The Karshes also donated portraits to Brigham and Women’s Hospital.''
You can see Karsh himself in the exhibit’s 1977 television interview with Morley Shafer on ``60 Minutes'' and in two self-portraits: one, dressed formally in a suit and tie, where he is studying one of his negatives, and another, where he has surrealistically placed himself inside a glass ball in a garden.
What comes clear is a man who never lost interest in his subjects and the possibilities for capturing their spirit.
According to his wife, when Karsh was asked to choose his favorite photographs, he would respond, ``The one I will take tomorrow.''
Reach Jody Feinberg at jfeinberg@ledger.com.
Karsh images in MFA exhibit
Look for these images:
Political leaders:
Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, Nikita Khrushchev, Ibn Abdul Aziz Faisal, Fidel Castro, Georges Pompidou, Jawajarlal Nehru
Scientists:
Albert Einstein, Jacques Cousteau, Albert Schweitzer, Edward Teller
Artists:
Pablo Picasso, Mies van der Rohe, Ansel Adams, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Emilio Greco, Jacques Lipchitz
Writers:
George Bernard Shaw, Helen Keller, Carl Sandburg, W.H. Auden, Tennessee Williams. H.G. Wells
Musicians and Singers:
Jean Sibelius, Jessye Norman, Pablo Casals, Paul Robeson, Glenn Gould
Actors and Actresses:
Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Angela Lansbury, Boris Karloff, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable
Nobel Peace Prize Winners:
Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer
