Portrait in Light and Shadow:
The Life of Yousuf Karsh
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by Maria Tippett
House of Anansi Press, Toronto, 2007
427 pp., illus., $39.95 hardcover
Many Canadians are familiar with Yousuf Karsh’s iconic black-and-white portraits, but most know little about the man behind the camera. Maria Tippett fills that void with her engaging biography of the legendary Ottawa photographer.
One of Canada’s leading cultural historians, Tippett had the support of Karsh’s family, and many details are widely revealed for the first time. For instance, how many people knew that the photographer started life in Canada as Joe Karsh? Tippett assesses the entire range of Karsh’s work over his long career. Her discussion of the celebrated 1941 Winston Churchill portrait is particularly good, as is her examination of Karsh’s lesser-known commercial photography.
Portrait in Light and Shadow includes photos of dozens of Karsh’s most famous subjects — from Grey Owl to Trudeau, from Einstein, to Khrushchev, to Bill and Hillary Clinton. Yet the book includes virtually no studio portraits of Karsh’s regular Ottawa clientele, the people who kept him busy when he wasn’t photographing famous personalities. A few examples could have given a more balanced impression of the photographer’s work.
Nonetheless, Tippett’s book is well researched and the selected photographs are superb. She sheds light on a remarkable Canadian whose name is synonymous with photographic excellence.
— Gavin Murphy (Read bio)
Gavin Murphy is an Ottawa lawyer,author, freelance writer and a "Titanic" enthusiast.