“I decided to photograph her as another friend had described her
“Georgia, her pure profile calm, clearer sleek black hair drawn swiftly back into a tight knot at the nape of her necktie strong white hands, touching and lifting everything, even the boiled eggs, as if they were living things-sensitive slow moving hands, coming out of the black and white, always this black and white".
~ Yousuf Karsh
(1908-2002)
“It’s not enough to be nice in life. You’ve got to have nerve. To create one’s world in any of the arts takes courage.”
~ Georgia O’Keefe
(1887-1986)
I have always thought that this Karsh image was one of the greatest photographs ever taken of an artist. To say that Karsh captured O’Keefe’s essence would be an understatement of his achievement. It is the perfect portrait. He travelled to Abiquiu in New Mexico to photograph one of the greatest 20th Century modernist painters. Her intensity, her stoic character and the simplicity with which she lived is all here, Ms O’Keefe, one cannot just call her Georgia out of respect for what she created, lived in a sparse adobe home with wide windows overlooking the mountains that was almost completely devoid of ornament. A rare artist whose whole life and focus was dedicated to her work.
This is what Karsh shows us through his own art and talent.
Perfect synchronicity.
