https://photoquotes.com/author/yousuf-karsh
White camera
https://photoquotes.com/author/yousuf-karsh
White camera
Tin Can
Tin Can
Cool stuff!
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
Like those view camera ads which show the standards and bellows contorted to the extremes, in a manner nobody really uses. But studio technique is a world away from field usage anyway. One can employ things like high speed flash to overcome some of the vibration risk inherent to center columns and studio stand arms. One can also resort to a helluva heavy tripod too.
I've always thought that Karsh's work was a mixed bag, there's no doubt that there are some spectacular timeless portraits - but much of his work is just so stiff and uncomfortable looking - Hemingway looks like a wax figure- the Steinem portrait is cloyingly bad, especially when you look at other portraits of her from the same time period. I've always enjoyed Arnold Newman's work much more than Karsh's - he (Newman) really kicked opened the doors to modern environmental portraiture. There is quite a bit of irony for me in saying this, as I own an original Karsh (of Georgia O'Keeffe) that has delighted me for almost 40 years. Newman's version of O'Keeffe isn't quite as good...
Heck, almost every older teenage male when I was growing up was greased. How many here will admit to once wearing a greased ducktail hairdo along with a leather jacket? I wonder if Karsh ever photographed James Dean? No wonder he had to use strobes. Hot lights would have melted the stuff. Vasoline was the main ingredient of that guck anyway.
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