Yousuf Karsh

Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

Illustrated p57. Yousuf Karsh. “Regarding Heroes” David R.Godine .Publisher Boston 2009

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old ; we grow old because we stop playing” - George Bernard Shaw

One of my other great passions in life apart from collecting photographs is going to the theater and whenever there is a production of a Shaw play I make a beeline for it. The power and the wit of his writing never wanes for me.

This is the greatest photo of Shaw ever taken of him that is also a tribute to Karsh’s technique. One feels Shaw is just sitting next to you giving you his full intention.
Here are Karsh’s memories of this special sitting.

“Every obstacle was in my way when I first met George Bernard Shaw in 1943. To begin with, his secretary laid down drastic and quite impossible terms. I was to have five minutes only with the great man. There were to be no lights. I could use nothing but a "miniature camera”. While I was arguing vainly, Shaw himself came bursting into the room with the energy of a young man, though he was then almost ninety years old. His manner , his penetrating old eyes, his bristling beard and crisp speech were all designed to awe me, and in the beginning, they succeeded. Shaw said he could see no reason why I should photograph him anyway. I explained that the Government of Canada wished to have a good portrait of him in the National Archives at Ottawa. “Since when” he retorted. “does the Canadian Government know a good picture when it sees one? And in any case why do they not commission Augustus John at a thousand guineas and make sure of the job? If John did it ,the job would be good- or at any rate everybody would think so. “ Plucking up my courage, I suggested that perhaps I had been assigned to take the portrait for that same reason.

In the end , I had all the time I wanted and I think Shaw enjoyed himself. For he was a better actor than many who appeared in his plays, and he obviously loved to act. His favorite role seemed to be that of a sort of harmless Mephistopheles or the grumpy wicked uncle with a heart of gold, After testing me with preliminary terror, we got along beautifully. He said I might make a good picture of him but none as good as the picture he had seen at a recent dinner party. There he had glimpses ,over the shoulder of his hostess, what he took to be a perfect portrait of himself -cruel, you understand, a diabolical caricature but absolutely true. He pushed by the lady. Approached that living image to find that he was looking into a mirror! The old man peered at me quizzically to see if I appreciated his little joke .It was then that I caught him in my portrait.

Later on, a noted British journalist asked me to prepare a copy of this picture, which he proposed to have autographed by Shaw.. To his chagrin, he received the picture with Shaw’s signature scrawled on the back of it. When asked for an explanation, Shaw replied; “I was careful to make sure my signature should not distract from my face”. Nothing I think could distract from that face.