Pablo Casals by Yousuf Karsh

I recently saw the Yousuf Karsh photography exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago for my history of photography class. We had to select a picture to write a paper about. Karsh is known for shooting portraits of notable people, such as Winston Churchill (the portrait that put him on the map), Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, Georgia O’Keefe, John and Jacqueline Kennedy, Helen Keller, Fidel Castro, Audrey Hepburn, and Muhammad Ali, as well as many others.

I chose to write about his portrait of Pablo Casals, a master cellist from Spain, someone who I was not familiar with. All of Karsh's photographs have gorgeous, dramatic lighting, but this picture really stood out to me because of how beautiful it is. The picture is so beautiful because you can almost hear the music when you look at it. It appears as if the music itself is the source of light in this picture.

Yousuf Karsh's Official Website