Famous Faces

One of the challenges for exhibition curator Jerry Fielder must have been to select just 150 or so photos out of the 15,312 in the Karsh collection. Fielder knows that exact number, because he archived the works after Karsh retired in the early1990s. No one could have been better prepared to do so; Fielder came to work as Karsh's assistant for one year in 1979 and ended up staying 24.

"It was a very good job and a very good fit," says Fielder. "We liked each other." In addition to being extraordinarily gifted as a photographer, Fielder says, Karsh possessed the rare knack of making his subjects, famous or not, so comfortable during a session they could really be themselves. "He saw the face as a landscape, and he was very good at reading the map," Fielder explains. "He was in charge, and he knew if they weren't being themselves."

Few photographers are both good behind the camera and master printers after the shooting is done, Fielder says, but Karsh was both: "And he was always the same person, whether he was with a president or the next-door neighbor. He was kind, very good natured and genuine, with no pretension. When people came up to him on the street to shake his hand he always asked about them; he was genuinely interested."

Before his death last year, Karsh was listed among the most notable 100 people of the 20th century in the International Who's Who. Turns out, he'd also photographed more than half of the others.

For more information on Karsh Portraits: Legends, call 597-1900.