Churchill photographer dies

Karsh: Famous for his photos of the famous

Photographer Yousuf Karsh, who gained international prominence with his portrait of a defiant Winston Churchill in 1941, has died in the US at the age of 93.

Many of Karsh's subjects were world leaders. He photographed 12 American presidents, as well as artists and other public figures, including Albert Einstein and Ernest Hemingway.

The human face is the great challenge in the world

Yousuf Karsh

"My personal interest in ordinary people is unlimited, but I am fascinated by the challenge of portraying true greatness adequately with my camera," he wrote in a 1996 essay.

And he said that the photograph of Churchill appealed to the whole world, because it caught all the bulldog determination of the British Empire.

In December 1941, he took his famous image of Britain's war-time prime minister - a photograph that was seen as a potent symbol of Britain's defiant stand against Nazi Germany.

His 1957 photograph of Hemingway wearing a turtleneck sweater was the basis of a commemorative US stamp honouring the author.

Human faces

Among his other subjects were the Soviet leader Nikita Khurshchev, a young Fidel Castro, and film stars including Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot and Humphrey Bogart.

Photographer of world figures

"The human face is the great challenge in the world," Karsh once said. " I never tire of it and everyone is different."

Karsh was born to Armenian parents in Turkey in 1908, but the family fled after massacres in their home town.

He arrived in Canada in 1924, moving to Boston before settling in Ottawa where he began his professional career in 1932.

He moved back to Boston in the early 1990s.