Karsh: American Legends by Yousuf Karsh (Photographer), Yousuf Karsh (Commentaries by)

From Barnes & Noble

In this glorious book of photographs, you will not find any pictures of anorexic teenage models or sulking grunge rockers, no one-hit wonders or "flavors of the day." What you will find is a gallery of fascinating, compelling personalities--mature men and women who have literally shaped our era and measurably improved the quality of our lives. Compiled by photographer Yousuf Karsh (something of a legend himself), this book captures the essence of nearly 75 remarkable North Americans who have distinguished themselves in a wide variety of fields. Filled with unforgettable images of choreographer Judith Jamison, scientist Jonas Salk, humanitarian Mother Hale, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, puppeteer Jim Henson, golfer Arnold Palmer, and other "over-achievers," this photographic collection celebrates the triumph of genuine accomplishment over the cult of personality. 9 3/4" x 12 1/4". Color & b&w photos.

From the Publisher

The name Yousuf Karsh has been synonymous with photographic portraiture ever since his image of a defiant Winston Churchill was published in 1941. His remarkable career has now spanned sixty years, but he continues to forge ahead, breaking new ground as he portrays the people who - each in his or her own way - have influenced our world. In American Legends, his latest volume of new portraits, most taken over the last two years, Yousuf Karsh captures the essence of nearly seventy-five of North America's most fascinating and compelling personalities - from the performing arts, sports, and publishing to the worlds of science and philanthropy. Here is our newest hero, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, and George Abbott, who, at 105, has been instrumental in the evolution of the American musical theater. Other luminaries of stage and screen include Harold Prince, Julie Harris, Charlton Heston, Angela Lansbury, and James Stewart. From the world of music are Isaac Stern, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Marilyn Horne, Jessye Norman, and Rudolf Serkin as well as jazz giants Dave Brubeck and Dizzy Gillespie. Painters Jasper Johns and Helen Frankenthaler, contemporary-art impresario Leo Castelli, master caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, and humanitarian Mother Clara Hale also enrich this remarkable book. In this splendid collection, presented in book form for the first time, Karsh gives us an intimate glimpse into these diverse personalities, who have made our era so memorable.

Publishers Weekly

With a memorable portrait style perhaps best exemplified by his photo of a doggedly defiant Winston Churchill during WW II, and the equally distinctive professional title Karsh of Ottawa, Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh has dominated the conventional personal-portrait field in North America for half a century. He long combined strong, balanced frontal lighting with limited backlight that outlined his subject, creating an effect so readily identifiable that few imitated it. More recently, as in his celebrity portraits collected here, he uses lighting as a dramatic variable, along with limited props, background and educed facial expression, to interpret character. As ``legends,'' the personages seen here transcend in reknown their specialties--playwright Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Miller, activists Cesar Chavez and Mother Hale, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown and entertainer-philosophers Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog, to name a few. (Oct.)

Library Journal

Karsh is a superb portrait photographer. For 60 years, with a soul-searching clarity that springs from his respect for his subjects, he has given us images of famous people. This large-format volume includes American ``legends,'' whom Karsh describes as ``people who are part of our shared memory . . . supreme masters in their fields.'' Each photo is enhanced by Karsh's recollection of its circumstance. This book serves two purposes: It offers notable examples of portrait photography as art, and its photographic portraits of 73 celebrities from the arts, the media, and public life make it a visual who's who. Recommended for most libraries.-- David Bryant, Belleville P.L., N.J.

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