Yousuf Karsh (December 23, 1908 – July 13, 2002) was an Armenian-Canadian photographer, and one of the most famous and accomplished portrait photographers of all time.

Yousuf or Josuf (his given Armenian name was Hovsep) Karsh was born in Mardin, a city in the eastern Ottoman Empire (present Turkey). He grew up during a time when he was a child and he and his family witnessed the great famine of the period, costing the family the life of Yousuf’s sister, and the ensuing 1918 pandemic along with the atrocities and severely harsh measurements of mass deportation by the authorities on the Armenian minorities living in the Ottoman Empire, the so-called “the sick man of Europe”. He later wrote, “I saw relatives massacred; my sister died of starvation as we were driven from village to village.”

Speaking about his Photography, he was very powerful in using studio lights. He had Photographed many famous personalities all over the world during his reign in Photography. In all his photographs there was an essence for the person he has captured which is very much visible to us. He says ” My chief joy is to photograph the great in heart, in mind, and in spirit, whether they be famous or humble.”

You need to consider lots of factors while taking portrait photos. Great portraits require great cameras and lenses. You can’t make do without one another. Even though you have the right camera, the lens with the wrong focal length or aperture may ruin your photos.

Enzo McGlynn at FocusOnLens.com has published many guides related lens including their buying guides, informational guides, photography guides, and much more.

More Information about Yousuf Karsh.

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

W.H.Auden

W.H.Auden - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Jessye Norman

Jessye Norman - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

General Dwight Eisenhower

General Dwight Eisenhower - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Martha Graham

Martha Graham - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Helen Keller, with Polly Thompson

Helen Keller, with Polly Thompson - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Jacqueline Kennedy

Jacqueline Kennedy - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Grace Kelly

Grace Kelly - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Alberto Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Georgia O’Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Joan Miró

Joan Miró - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Pablo Casal

Pablo Casal - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

François Mauriac

François Mauriac  - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Paul Claudel

Paul Claudel - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer  - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Thomas Cullen

Thomas Cullen - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Robert Frost

Robert Frost - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Man Ray

Man Ray - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Jacques Cousteau

Jacques Cousteau  - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Peter Lorre

Peter Lorre - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh

Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Bardot - Portraits by Yousuf Karsh
© Yousuf Karsh