Photos: Yousuf Karsh's Portraits
in Boston
Self-Portrait, 1962
"In the summer of 1926,
I went to work for Uncle Nakash at his (photographic) studio, burying my
original desire to study medicine. While at first I did not realize it,
everything connected with the art of photography captivated my interest and
energy - it was to be not only my livelihood but my continuing
passion."
Winston Churchill, 1941
"In 1941, Churchill
visited first Washington and then Ottawa. The Prime Minister, Mackenzie King,
invited me to be present and to observe Churchill's ｅxpressions, moods, and
attitudes while he addressed the Canadian Parliament. After the electrifying
speech, I waited in the Speaker's Chamber where, the evening before, I had set
up my lights and camera. The Prime Minister, arm-in-arm with Churchill and
followed by his entourage, started to lead him into the room. I switched on my
floodlights; a surprised Churchill growled, "What's this, what's this?" No one
had the courage to explain. I timorously stepped forward and said, "Sir, I hope
I will be fortunate enough to make a portrait worthy of this historic occasion."
He glanced at me and demanded, "Why was I not told?" When his entourage began to
laugh, this hardly helped matters for me. Churchill lit a fresh cigar, puffed at
it with a mischievous air, and then magnanimously relented. "You may take one."
But 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! 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. The silence was deafening. Then, Mr.
Churchill, smiling benignly, said, "You may take another one." He walked toward
me, shook my hand, and said, "You can even make a roaring lion stand still to be
photographed."
Betty Low, 1936
"I photographed this rising
young ballerina and actress at the beginning of her prestigious career. She went
on to dance in the renowned de Basil's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and later
acted in numerous productions on the New York stage. Today, she still pursues an
active career in New York. In a recent letter, she recalled for me how I
improvised her turban from the window curtains, which I tore down and draped
around her head and shoulders."
Pablo Picasso, 1954
"The maestro's villa was
a photographer's nightmare, with his boisterous children bicycling through vast
rooms already crowded with canvases. I eagerly accepted Picasso's alternate
suggestion to meet later in Vallauris at his ceramic gallery. "He will never be
here," the gallery owner commented, when my assistant and two hundred pounds of
equipment arrived. "He says the same thing to every photographer." To everyone's
amazement, the "old lion" not only kept his photographic appointment with me but
was prompt and wore a new shirt. He could partially view himself in my large
format lens and intuitively moved to complete the
composition."
Audrey Hepburn, 1956
"The French novelist
Colette picked her out of a ballet lineup to play Gigi on stage, and her career
was launched. When I photographed her in Hollywood and commented on her quality
of sophisticated vulnerability, she told me of her harrowing experiences during
the Second World War. Years later, in the Kremlin, Chairman Brezhnev agreed to
sit for me only if I made him as beautiful as Audrey Hepburn."
Peter Lorre, 1946
"The large sign on the
driveway outside of his home read 'Beware of Ferocious Dogs.' They turned out to
be two frisky Pekingese. His screen role as the sensitive deviant "M" had
launched his European career as a serious actor. The American movie legend of
Peter Lorre was that of the timorous, sometimes menacing, sometimes bumbling
sidekick of the arch villain. He turned out to be a gemutlich Viennese gentlemen
of wit and culture."
Ernest Hemingway, 1957
"I expected to meet
in the author a composite of the heroes of his novels. Instead, in 1957, at his
home Finca Vigia, near Havana, I found a man of peculiar gentleness, the shyest
man I ever photographed - a man cruelly battered by life, but seemingly
invincible. He was still suffering from the effects of a plane accident that
occurred during his fourth safari to Africa. I had gone the evening before to La
Floridita, Hemingway's favorite bar, to do my "homework" and sample his favorite
concoction, the daiquiri. But one can be over prepared! When, at nine the next
morning, Hemingway called from the kitchen, "What will you have to drink?" my
reply was, I thought, letter-perfect: "Daiquiri, sir." "Good God, Karsh,"
Hemingway remonstrated, "at this hour of the day!"
Estrellita Karsh, 1963
"It was a congenial
medical office - one that always made me think of my original desire to be a
physician - which provided the setting for Estrellita Nachbar, the gifted
medical writer and historian who was to become my wife. I was in Chicago
photographing her employer and mentor; one of America's most distinguished
physicians, Dr. Walter C. Alvarez. Estrellita had been Dr. Alvarez's editor for
some years, using her extensive literary and medical background to make
difficult scientific concepts exciting and readable to the layman, and
collaborating with the doctor on his current best sellers. As Newsweek whimsically put it when reporting on
our marriage in 1962, "Something else clicked beside the shutter."
Jacques Cousteau, 1972
"In his wetsuit, his
profile reminiscent of a thirteenth-century mystic, Jacques Cousteau reminded me
of a medieval seer. As I photographed this knight of the twentieth century, I
was fascinated to learn about his underwater research. "It is the key to human
survival," Cousteau said. He warned that man is gravely endangering this vital
resource. All land pollutants eventually find their way to the oceans and "we
risk poisoning the sea forever, just when we are learning her scenic art and
philosophy, and learning to live in her embrace."
Anita Ekberg, 1956
"The smorgasbord was
already lavishly spread on the table of Anita Ekberg's California home when I
arrived. Her natural behavior resembled the love goddesses she portrayed -
uninhibited and seductive, and totally without guile. When changing from one
gown to another, she ignored the screen her attendant had placed before her. She
exuded sexuality; in the garden, as she exuberantly hugged a tree trunk, it
became a gesture of utmost sensuality."
Rudolf Nureyev, 1977
"The celebrated
dancer/choreographer was guest artist with the National Ballet of Canada and
would shortly venture into his first film role, that of the great screen lover
Rudolph Valentino. During our photographic session we cajoled each other about
great lovers. "Let me see those sensuous lips of yours," I playfully suggested.
Puckishly, mischievously, he covered his mouth, and smiled with his
eyes."
Sophia Loren, 1981
"When an actress has the
intelligence and professionalism, as well as the beauty, of Sophia Loren,
photographing her becomes a highly enjoyable collaboration. We worked together
in her Paris apartment, in the early afternoon. She was very much a mother, and
adored her two young sons. As our session ended they returned home from school,
and I was touched by the outpouring of mutual love and affection.
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