- Title: Winston Churchill Photographic Portrait with International Photography Year Book 1958
- Author: Yousuf Karsh
- Date: Photo 1957, Book 1958
- Condition: See description
- Inches: 10 1/2 x 13 3/4
- Centimeters: 26.67 x 33.65
- Product ID: 308306
Karsh Photo of Winston Churchill at the Williamsburg Award Ceremony, 1955
Yousuf Karsh flew to England specially to make this portrait of Sir Winston Churchill on the occasion of the presentation of the Williamsburg Award on December 7, 1955. Karsh used an 8 x 10 view camera, with a 14-inch Ektar lens. Lighting was from three Multiblitz 200-watt second lamps, the aperture was f/32 and the sheet film Super-XX, developed in DK-50.
Provenance
This is the actual print, on Kodak bromide paper, that was used as the 1958 International Photography Yearbook submission. The books is included as part of the offering here.
The President of Colonial Williamsburg reflects upon Churchill receiving the Williamsburg Award
THE EMBODIMENT OF OUR ENDURING VALUES
In the face of encroaching darkness, there are those who stand up and those who stand aside. History judges accordingly.
Fifty-nine years ago, the leaders of this Foundation reached across the Atlantic to honor a man who had stood against the Devil himself to lead the world out of darkness. Sir Winston Churchill was eight months into retirement from his second term as prime minister when Colonial Williamsburg Chairman Winthrop Rockefeller presented him on Dec. 7, 1955, with the newly created Williamsburg Award.
At age 80, Churchill was not through with politics; he would remain a member of parliament for another nine years. But he was in fragile health, and frustrated over the aggressive rise of the Soviet Union and Cold War conflicts that had followed the Second World War. So many courageous decisions and victories in battle — both military and political — had left so much still undone.
Such was the complex picture of a man who had spent a career spurning easy choices — and often, popular opinion — to defy the crushing forces of oppression and tyranny. As Churchill himself had put it in September of 1941: “There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right and not to fear to do or say what you believe to be right.”
With the Williamsburg Award, Chairman Rockefeller and other trustees paid tribute not only to the accomplishments of this rare individual, but to the moral courage and respect for human dignity he embodied, and that forever link his legacy with the visionaries and heroes of early Williamsburg. Faced with the prospect of annihilation at the hands of a powerful king, these were patriots who chose the promise of liberty over expediency and self-preservation.
Message from the President of Colonial Williamsburg, Mitchell Reiss, Fall 2015
Yousuf Karsh
Yousuf Karsh was an Armenian-Canadian photographer renowned for his exceptional portrait photography. Born on December 23, 1908, in Mardin, Ottoman Empire (now Turkey), Karsh was a survivor of the Armenian genocide. His early life was marked by hardship, as he witnessed the persecution of Armenians and lost family members during this tumultuous period.
In 1922, Karsh and his family escaped to a refugee camp in Aleppo, Syria, before he migrated to Canada in 1924 at the age of sixteen. He went to live with his uncle George Nakash, also a photographer, who introduced him to the world of photography. Karsh began his formal training in photography when he apprenticed with John Garo in Boston from 1928 to 1931, where he learned to master light, shadow, and form. Karsh established his first photography studio in Ottawa in 1932. He gained prominence after capturing an iconic portrait of Winston Churchill in 1940, which became one of the most reproduced portraits in history. Throughout his career, he photographed numerous notable figures, including political leaders, artists, and celebrities
Karsh was widely recognized for his exceptional work and was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in 1967, and subsequently promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada in 1990. He received numerous honorary degrees from over two dozen universities, and his works are housed in major museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Karsh was known for his meticulous approach to portraiture, believing in deeply understanding his subjects before photographing them. He continued working until his retirement in 1992 and passed away on July 13, 2002, in Boston, Massachusetts, at the age of 93. Karsh is remembered as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century, celebrated for his ability to reveal the essence of his subjects through masterful use of light and shadow.
Condition
Photo with creases from improper handling. Book with shelf wear, corners slightly bumped, spine sunned. Both very good.