约瑟夫·卡什是一位加拿大阿美尼亚裔摄影师，是全世界最著名的肖像摄影师之一。1941年他为英国首相温斯顿·丘吉尔拍摄的那幅著名的肖像让卡什赢得国际盛名，并且被认为是全世界被复制最多的摄影肖像。卡什说：“我最大的喜悦在于摄身、心、灵之中的伟大，不论他们名声显赫或是平凡谦卑⋯⋯我深知每个人内心深处都隐藏着一个秘密，作为摄影师，我的任务就是尽可能地去揭示这一秘密。尽管所有的人都会用面具极力掩饰，然而，人们内在的自我意识，有时会在一瞬之间，通过他无意识的手势、眼神以及短暂的失态流露出来。这个稍纵即逝的瞬间关系着摄影师的成败。”

 

 

 

 

Yousuf Karsh, a Canadian photographer of ethnic-Aemenian birth, and one the world‘s best known portraitists of his time. Karsh was born in Mardin, a city in the southeast region of Turkey. At the age of 14, he fled with his family to the safety of Syria to escape persecution after the Armenian Genocide six years earlier. Two years later, young Yousuf was sent to live with uncle George Nakash, a photographer in Quebec, Canada. Karsh attended school there briefly and assisted in his uncle’s studio. Nakash saw great potential in his nephew and, in 1928, arranged for Karsh to apprentice with portrait photographer John Garo of Boston. Karsh returned Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, discovered the yet unknown Karsh and took a liking to him. His work was attracting the attention of brought Karsh international prominence, and is claimed to be the most reproduced photographic portrait in history. Karsh said “My chief joy is to photograph the great in heart, in mind, and in spirit, whether they be famous or humble...All I know is that within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can. The revelation, if it comes at all, will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture, a gleam of the eye, a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world. In that fleeting interval of opportunity the photographer must act or lose his prize."