No artist in Canada is more celebrated for making portraits than Yousuf Karsh (1908–2002). In his hands, the camera could reveal a person’s true self in a single frame. Like his work, Karsh is legendary—known simply by his surname. This talk will explore how, after fleeing the Armenian Genocide in 1924, he arrived in Canada as a refugee before building a remarkable career based in Ottawa, his city of choice and adopted home. It will address Karsh’s 1941 breakthrough with his electrifying portrait of Winston Churchill, an image that catapulted him onto the world
stage. And it will reveal how, over the next six decades, Karsh mastered the art of portraiture, creating a unique chronicle of his time through images of leaders, artists,
and cultural icons.