“Karsh Is History: Yousuf Karsh and Portrait Photography’’ is a thoughtful, briskly paced biography, airing on WGBH (Channel 2) tonight. Director Joseph Hillel does not shy away from Karsh’s romance with fame. When asked if he wanted to be rich, or famous, Karsh is said to have replied, “Famous, of course.’’ He got what he wanted, and not simply because he knew what he was doing with lights, cameras, and film. He was courteous and, we’re told, impossible to say no to.
Born in Armenia in 1908 and raised during the persecution and genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman Turk empire, Karsh and his family escaped first to Syria, and ultimately, when he was 17, to Canada, where he apprenticed to his photographer uncle. He studied in Boston for three years with portrait photographer John H. Garo, then set up his own studio in Ottawa. His work caught the eye of Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, and that was his entrée to the political sphere.
The story behind his 1941 portrait of Winston Churchill is legendary, and Hillel lets many tell it, including Karsh’s assistant, photographer Peter Miller. The British prime minister gave Karsh two minutes to take his picture. He seemed to resent the imposition, and stood there with his cigar between his teeth, scowling. Karsh plucked the cigar from his mouth; Churchill looked even angrier. That’s when Karsh shot his prize: A portrait, it could be argued, that the Allies needed at that moment, one that conveyed Churchill’s leonine ferocity. Karsh became famous.
Magazines such as Life and Paris Match, which told stories largely in photographs, were, along with newspapers, the Internet of the day - the source people turned to learn about what was going on in the world. Karsh took a European tour, shooting the intelligentsia, such as Pablo Casals and Pablo Picasso. He would develop his 8x10 negatives in hotel closets. “He had to impress those people that he was just not a photographer,’’ Miller says, “but he was a person on their stature, an artist.’’
