Yousuf Karsh: The Greatest Portrait Photos Ever Taken

Written by : 121clicks Team

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.

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