Winston Churchill

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    File name: 09_03_000023

    Title: Winston Churchill

    Creator/Contributor: Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002), photographer

    Created/Published:

    Date created: 1941

    Physical description: photograph

    Summary: Describing the portrait that propelled the photographer to worldwide fame, Yousuf Karsh wrote: “My portrait of Winston Churchill changed my life. I knew after I had taken it that it was an important picture, but I could hardly have dreamed that it would become one of the most widely reproduced images in the history of photography...Churchill’s cigar was ever present. I held out an ashtray but he would not dispose of it. I went back to my camera and made sure that everything was all right technically. I waited; he continued to chomp vigorously at his cigar…Then I stepped toward him and, without premeditation, but ever so respectfully, I said, ‘Forgive me, sir,’ and plucked the cigar out of his mouth. By the time I got back to my camera, he looked so belligerent he could have devoured me. It was at that instant that I took the photograph…” In 2005, the family of Yousuf Karsh loaned the Boston Public Library a collection of 57 Karsh portraits of literary figures.

    Location: This item was temporarily loaned to the Boston Public Library by The Estate of Yousuf Karsh. It was returned in 2010.

    Rights: Copyright © The Estate of Yousuf Karsh. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of The Estate of Yousuf Karsh.

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