Karsh, Yousuf

As the last of the great portrait photographers, Karsh of Ottawa has become almost as famous as his legendary subjects. Born in 1908 in Turkish Armenia, his family fled to Syria when he was 14, and then to Canada when he was 16, where he lived with and worked for his uncle, who was a photographer. For 65 years Karsh has presented us with a catalogue of famous faces. His portraits have become 20th century icons - the kind of images that define an age and are etched into memory. His portraits - some of which include Sir Winston Churchill, Fidel Castro, Ernest Hemingway, John F. Kennedy and Albert Einstein - rank among the world's most celebrated photographs. Yousuf Karsh died on 13 July 2002 at the age of 93.