Friday, December 18, 2009

AT 11.2 Karsh


Out all the images in the Karsh exhibition at The WAG the one that stood out for me was the one of Peter Lorre, 1946 a Gelatin silver print. I loved the way Karsh places his subject in the frame, dramatically lights the subject, and captures Peter Lorre's eyes. For me the eyes say a lot and Peters eyes were captured in that sinister character he always plays in Alfred Hitchcock films. Peter Lorre was introduced to Karsh through Alfred Hitchcock who often cast Peter as a villans in his movies. And that is what Karsh was trying to invoke in this image. Setting up this shot seems to have been really hard seeing how he shoot it in such a low light setting, he must have taken a long exposure and got his subject to stay a still as possible. You still get a sense of blur coming from the smoke. Which brings me too the printing aspect, to me it seems like he would have had to use yellow to get the high lights in as bright as possible and then having to burn in on the dark parts to get the dramatic effect.
I've been to Karsh's exhibit 3 times now and it never gets old. His work captures the true face of each character he photographs. His images scream and tell more about the character then some of the read ups I've done about these people.

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