The name Yousuf Karsh has been synonymous with photographic portraiture ever since his image of a defiant Winston Churchill was published in 1941. His remarkable career has now spanned sixty years, but he continues to forge ahead, breaking new ground as he portrays the people who - each in his or her own way - have influenced our world.
In American Legends, his latest volume of new portraits, most taken over the last two years, Yousuf Karsh captures the essence of nearly seventy-five of North America's most fascinating and compelling personalities - from the performing arts, sports, and publishing to the worlds of science and philanthropy. Here is our newest hero, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, and George Abbott, who, at 105, has been instrumental in the evolution of the American musical theater. Other luminaries of stage and screen include Harold Prince, Julie Harris, Charlton Heston, Angela Lansbury, and James Stewart. From the world of music are Isaac Stern, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Marilyn Horne, Jessye Norman, and Rudolf Serkin as well as jazz giants Dave Brubeck and Dizzy Gillespie. Painters Jasper Johns and Helen Frankenthaler, contemporary-art impresario Leo Castelli, master caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, and humanitarian Mother Clara Hale also enrich this remarkable book.
In this splendid collection, presented in book form for the first time, Karsh gives us an intimate glimpse into these diverse personalities, who have made our era so memorable.