YOSUF KARSH

 Several years ago, I put together a book that I called "FACES". It was a collection of images taken over the five decades I have been involved in photography. Attached to one of these images was a quote attributed to the great portraitist Yosuf Karsh. The quote is: "The trouble with photographing beautiful women is that you never get into the dark room until after they've gone." To illustrate this quote, I put it with a lovely lady who wanted some new portraits for her real estate business. I spent most of a morning with her shooting both color and black&white portraits in various settings and clothing to give her a selection of images. I think this shot, captured on Tri-X, best illustrates the Karsh quote.

It was a fun shoot since we had known each other for a couple of years by this time. She was very relaxed in her home setting and seemed to enjoy the attention of the camera. Having the subject relax always makes for an easy shoot. Of course, you could do like Karsh did to Winston Churchill and takes his ever-present cigar from him to get the real person to show up.