I choose to write about her portrait because it had so much emotion in it, at least to me. I really liked that Karsh didn't photograph her with her eyes/face up, and that he had included her hands, which to her, were her eyes. Karsh commented himself about her seeing ability: (she) "placed her marvelously sensitive fingers on my face. In her mind's eye, I knew she already had me completely photographed." They had a connection in common, and that was seeing past the exteriors that people show you of themselves. Karsh could go behind the mask, and show the world a different side of people. In Helen Keller he saw that "the light comes from within". I found it very interesting that that focus plane was on her hands, rather than her face. With most portraits the focus plane is on the eyes, but Karsh chose to highlight what she saw the world with.
On a technical aspect Karsh had perhaps burned the background a bit to make it so dark. There was a rim of light around her shoulder, whether this was from dodging & burning, or just the rim light, it was a nice emphasis, silhouetting her. In fact, the photo link I found to post this, has the background a lot lighter. So maybe it was a scan of a different print.
Karsh used high contrast to make his images very black, and the highlights bright. It would have been interesting to see the prints when they were made, as I'm sure some aging has occurred. The clarity of Karsh's photos is spectacular. I like that you can see all the truths of a person's face, and all the out-of-place hairs. It gives a sense of human-ness, of vulnerability that today's photoshopping cuts out.
Here's the link to Helen Keller Portrait by Yousuf Karsh.
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