Talk:Yousuf Karsh

IMO the photos are copyrighted

IMO the photos are copyrighted. Ericd 20:35 Feb 10, 2003 (UTC)

Photos are used under "fair use" provisions of copyright statutes. - Bison

Should we keep the photos ?

Ericd 20:24 Apr 18, 2003 (UTC)

This is an educational non-profit organization. As long as the photos are credited I don't believe anyone would even attempt to file suit against the wikipedia, especially in regards to a photo of Churchill or Einstein. Juan Hernandez

Wikipedia is not an educational organization.... Where are the classrooms ?

Yer in one... Juan Hernandez

We don't need fair use. These photos are Public Domain. I'm uploading better version of these photos giving proper referecences and copyright datas. Ericd 20:54 Apr 18, 2003 (UTC)

Photos PD only in Cananda

Reproduction courtesy of the Karsh Estate In all important countries except of Canada the pictures are protected. The should be removed from commons to avoid litigation from Karsh Estate. --80.132.109.89 03:14, 7 November 2005 (UTC) .

"Safety of Syria"?

The beginning of the biography starts by saying:

At the age of 14, Karsh fled with his family to the safety of Syria.

What was he fleeing, from which he would be safe in Syria? The article does not say! Michael Hardy 00:44, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Probably a consequence of the Armenian genocide ? Ericd 10:57, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Exactly. All canadian armenians would know Sumguy333 08:43, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

Origin

He is of rather Turkish origin, also as the name and surname indicates. Brand 01:15, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

That is not true. Did you read the article? Hakob 06:27, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Ottoman Armenian is the most accurate description, I think. Judging by his uncle, his surname appears to be a corruption of Nakkaş; Turkish for "sculptor". --Adoniscik^{(t, c)} 19:08, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

Passing

There isn't enough information on Mr Karsh's death. How did he die? Was he ill for a time? More info anyone? --Bentonia School 12:29, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Canadian Citizenship

Image:First official Canadian Citizenship ceremony at the Supreme Court building.jpg indicates that Karsh was among the first people sworn in as Canadian citizens in 1947. Is that worth mentioning in this article? - TheMightyQuill (talk) 17:51, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

It's notable, so I'd say yes. The image is public domain, so it possibly could go in the article also (even though it's not a Karsh portrait:) Franamax (talk) 18:22, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Plagiarized article

Someone needs to review this and do a full rewrite. In looking for examples of Karsh's pictures, I found that this article was lifted almost in whole from this site at TwinIsles. --Harper (talk) 13:10, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

They plagiarized us. See the credit at the bottom of the page. --Adoniscik^{(t, c)} 19:05, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

The article seems to follow very closely one which appears at http://www.famousphotographers.net/yousuf-karsh Very similar in content. Was one developed from the other? Xmitr2 (talk) 20:00, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

Background on the Churchill photo(?)

I heard long ago that Karsh, having carefully posed the shot, reached over and took away Churchill's cigar seconds before the picture was taken -- causing the famous look of stern, cold disapproval. If someone can verify this story and work it into the flow of the article, it might be an interesting addition. Thulcandra (talk) 17:50, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Heh, I agreed so much that I added two sentences with a source. Then I looked at the extensive dicussion of the incident in the "Work" section and reverted my own duplication of that. :) Seems to be well-covered already... Franamax (talk) 22:57, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

!! You're right. Missed that part of the article. Thulcandra (talk) 04:04, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

That section where it indicates that Karsh's favorite photo of Churchill is the smiling one he took after the more iconic picture -- could we link to the picture? I went looking for it, and I think it's this one (see the second picture on the page). Shilpanicodemus (talk) 16:19, 8 September 2012 (UTC)

Studio Location

I just edited the page to correct the location of Karsh's studio from his return to Canada in the 1930s until he relocated it to the Chateau Laurier in 1973. I added external references to two articles to document this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by RickDeNatale (talk • contribs) 22:36, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

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External links modified

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I have just modified 5 external links on Yousuf Karsh. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20110526215339/http://www.rca-arc.ca/en/about_members/since1880.asp to http://www.rca-arc.ca/en/about_members/since1880.asp
• Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20141112091559/http://inlovingmemoryof.me/rip/yousuf-karsh to http://inlovingmemoryof.me/rip/yousuf-karsh
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• Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20021207075739/http://schwinger.harvard.edu:80/~terning/bios/Karsh.html to http://schwinger.harvard.edu/~terning/bios/Karsh.html
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File nominated for deletion on commons

The file c:File:Sir Winston Churchill - 19086236948.jpg has been nominated for deletion on Commons 
Reason: I don't understand the decision above. The final comment, "The Karsh photo of Churchill is PD in Canada and the US since it was published in a 1945 issue of Life magazine. URAA affects images published or taken after 1945 in Canada. --Leoboudv ([[User talk:Leoboudv|[Template:M used with invalid code 'int:Talkpagelinktext'. See documentation.]]]) 09:44, 21 August 2017 " is wrong. It was, indeed, the cover of Life in 1945. That issue of Life had its copyright renewed, so the image will be under copyright in the USA until 2040. 
Deletion request: link

Message automatically deposited by a robot - -Harideepan (talk) 07:18, 3 March 2018 (UTC).

Career --- choice of subjects

I don't think he concentrated on important people all that much. He had to be commercial, after all. Which may be why he photographed me and my brother as schoolboys!  Seadowns (talk) 13:44, 31 March 2018 (UTC)

Error

Eisenhower was definitely not Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in 1946.Starhistory22 (talk) 08:06, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

Featured picture scheduled for POTD

Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Yousuf Karsh 1958.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for December 23, 2033. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2033-12-23. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. Date was chosen as it is the 125th birthday of Karsh If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! ―Howard • 🌽³³ 11:26, 20 September 2025 (UTC)

Yousuf Karsh (December 23, 1908 – July 13, 2002) was an Armenian-Canadian photographer known for his portraits of notable individuals. He has been described as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century. An Armenian genocide survivor, Karsh emigrated to Canada as a refugee. By the 1930s he established himself as a significant photographer in Ottawa, where he lived most of his adult life, though he traveled extensively for work. His iconic 1941 photograph of Winston Churchill was a breakthrough point in his career, through which he took numerous photos of known political leaders, men and women of arts and sciences. More than 20 photos by Karsh appeared on the cover of Life magazine, until he retired in 1993.

Photograph credit: Chris Lund

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Armenian-Canadian

I feel as though Armenian-Canadian would make more sense in the lede, as it provides a better picture of his national identity, and I don't think it makes sense to have him as just Canadian when his experience was more complex than that, so I am making the edit to that Dingdong the drivel (talk) 10:52, 20 April 2026 (UTC)