Review of "Faces of Our Time," by Yousuf Karsh

Review of

Faces of Our Time, by Yousuf Karsh 

Five out of five stars

This book is a demonstration of the fact that Karsh was an extraordinary photographer. These pictures of 48 of the most famous people over the decades that Karsh was most active capture the people in harsh and realistic black and white. “Gritty” is the most accurate word to describe their appearance, Karsh describes how difficult it was to capture some of the images. In some cases, there was not much time, in others there were environmental issues and sometimes things just did not work out at first.

 Yet, the struggle was well worth it, some of the images, such as those of Winston Churchill and the two Popes, capture history. Many of the featured people are artists, or involved in entertainment, acting and writing for entertainment. Great scientists such as Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer also appear, although females are almost completely absent. Short biographies of the featured people are also included.

 Iconic photos are by definition rare events, except for some people that manage to take one on a regular basis. As can be seen here, Karsh is such a person.