Yousuf Karsh

[John Jarosz]

I saw the Yousuf Karsh show at the Art Institute of Chicago yesterday. 100 prints out of 200+ that will eventually go to the AIC permanently. Admission to the AIC is free this February.

The guy was really good. Does anyone know if there are any descriptions of how he set up those shots? The lighting is the key. It did not seem like strobe/flash was part of the setup. I'm really interested how long the exposures were, because I never could see any subject movement, and there always appeared to have an abundance of depth-of-field.

A must-see.

John

[Allen in Montreal]

You should be able to find some data on line, he is well discussed and debated fotog. Try checking his photographer brother, Malik too.

I think I read somewhere he had a preference to over expose his negs and then reduce them. His lighting style developed while working for a theatre company.

[stehei]

there is a nice little book on lighting techniques I;ve once found (I'll look up the title, of your're interested in finding one, mine is not for sale, and it is very hard to find) which explains his setups in detail, and apart from that is pretty much the best guide to tungsten lighting techniques I've ever seen.

[jnantz]

if you can find nyip ( new york institute of photography )
classroom books grab them! they have set ups for
similar lighting techniques.
it was a correspondence school ( and still exists )
that trained people to be professional portrait photographers
in the 20s and 30s. i picked up a full set in its binder for almost nothing ...

i worked with someone was a student at this school in the 20s / 30s and
regularly used stylized lighting like karsh when she wasn't doing pr and "executive" head shots ...

she used a key, fill, a hair and background lights.
simple lights with a reflector and barn doors.

i never used farmers reducer, but the film ( tri x or tri x ortho )
was processed in deep tanks of dk50, and the film was retouched with lead.
the prints were sometimes abraded with a knife and lead/graphite dust rubbed into
the paper.

i think in the book "portraits if greatness" it shows him at work and his lighting set-up ... but i am not sure.

[John Jarosz]

there is a nice little book on lighting techniques I;ve once found (I'll look up the title, of your're interested in finding one, mine is not for sale, and it is very hard to find) which explains his setups in detail, and apart from that is pretty much the best guide to tungsten lighting techniques I've ever seen.

Yes, I would be interested in knowing the title of that book.

Thanks for all the answers.

john

[andress007]

I visited it two times already.

16x20 prints are magnificent, 3-dimensional look with deep dark backgrounds and subtle backlits.

Churchill, Eisenhower, Hemingway... you can almost feel them in person, so realistic images are.

But some images don't have such impact, they look "flat". Probably Karsh wanted to achieve this "flat" look, or probably even Master's also make mistakes sometimes.

Karsh 8x10 contacts are nice, but still they don't have such 3-dimensional look like I saw on August Sander's 8x10 contacts exactly in the same room before the Karsh exposition.

Anyway must see exposition.