If I asked you to close your eyes and imagine Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela, or Mother Theresa, what would you see? Chances are, without realizing it, your mind’s eye would conjure some recollection of a famous portrait taken by Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002), a teenager who arrived at the port of Halifax in 1924 as an Armenian refugee and lived to become one of the world’s most famous portrait photographers.
“The World of Yousuf Karsh: A Private Essence” is a collection of 110 black and white portraits, curated by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and brought to the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 with the support of Halifax benefactors, Fred and Elizabeth Fountain.
Karsh’s images have been featured in galleries around the world, on the cover of LIFE magazine (countless times), and are regularly chosen for stamps, banknotes, and book jackets. Significantly for Halifax, the exhibition includes a beautiful picture of world-famous singer Portia White, who began her career as a chorister at Cornwallis St. Baptist Church (now New Horizons Baptist Church).
Portia White: The Mona Lisa of the Exhibition
The “Mona Lisa” of the collection, White’s portrait is smaller than you expect. Bathed in dramatic “low-key” lighting of which Karsh was a master, the famous contralto leans back slightly, her long eyelashes casting shadows across flawless cheeks, her eyes and lips closed,
as if in the middle of a deep inhale. As you stand back, you can experience White’s “essence”, captured through the exchange of energy between photographer and subject, recorded through the science of light, paper, and chemicals, and finally, transferred to you, the viewer. It is an intensely intimate experience.
In Karsh’s own words (sourced from the excellent archive at www.Karsh.org), he explains: “The endless fascination of these people for me lies in what I call their inward power. It is part of the elusive secret that hides in everyone, and it has been my life’s work to try to
capture it on film.”
As interesting as the portraits themselves, which include nearly every actor, politician, or luminary of the 20th century, the caption next to each print reveals not only the context of each sitting but the profound relationships between Karsh and the people he photographed. As an example, the photograph of Winston Churchill – said to be the most reproduced portrait of all time – was staged by ambush, rather than appointment.
Winston Churchill: by ambush rather than an appointment
Following Churchill’s rousing wartime address to the Canadian Parliament in 1941, the Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King, who was a friend and patron of Karsh, directed Churchill to Karsh’s Chateau Laurier studio, to stand for a portrait, or as some would say, “to be Karshed”! Angry at the intrusion, Churchill glared into the camera, his smoking cigar thwarting any opportunity for photographic success.
Karsh, gentle, and small in stature, strode up to the belligerent British Prime Minister, purposefully removed the cigar from his mouth, and walked back to his large-format camera, four feet away. The story goes that Churchill was so impressed with Karsh’s audacity that he enthusiastically continued with the sitting. Not many people know of the nearly-identical “twin” to the print, owned by the Churchill family, which shows the British war Prime Minister smiling warmly into the lens.
An Immigration Story
The Karsh exhibition, says Halifax curator Dan Conlin, is also an immigration story.
He explains that at the time of the genocide, Canada’s immigration policies were unsympathetic to Armenian refugees. Despite an exodus of over 500,000 refugees from the Ottoman Empire, Canada accepted just 1,250 refugees between 1919 and 1930.
Fleeing on foot to Aleppo, the Karsh family had only enough money to send one family member to Canada. They chose 15-year-old Yousuf, who had ambitions to become a medical doctor. Instead of pursuing medicine, Karsh, who spoke very little French, and even less English, began studying with his uncle, a portrait photographer, in Sherbrooke, Quebec.
Karsh’s arrival in Halifax on January 1st, 1924 is recorded through his landing declaration, displayed as part of the exhibition at Pier 21. Look closely, and you will see the careless mistakes of a Canadian immigration officer (Karsh’s name is spelled two ways), compared with the carefully formed signature of a 15-year-old boy at the bottom of the paper. Also noted is the amount of money that Karsh brought with him: the precious sum of 135 Canadian dollars … reduced to a mere fifteen dollars after paying fees.
Karsh remembers Halifax fondly: “My first glimpse of the New World … was the Halifax wharf, covered with snow … The sparkling decorations on the windows of shops and houses, the laughing crowds — for me it was an unbelievable fantasy come true.”
Almost eight decades later, it is a dream come true for Halifax to host such a powerful and culturally important exhibition … in the place where it all began.
“The Word of Yousuf Karsh: A Private Essence” runs until October 16th, 2022. www.pier21.ca
Helen Earley is an award-winning food and travel writer, and author of the travel guide, 25 Family Adventures in Nova Scotia
