Yousuf Karsh (1908 - 2002)

HELEN KELLER & POLLY THOMPSON, 1948, silver gelatin print, printed later image size, 530mm x 480mm, signed and editioned /100, lower mount

“On first looking into her blind but seeing eyes, I said to myself of this woman who had no sight or hearing since the age of three, ‘Her light comes from within.’ When we met, she placed her marvelously sensitive fingers on my face. This was, for me, an emotional experience; I sensed she already knew me. Her faithful companion, Polly Thompson, dialed Braille into her palm. Helen Keller’s kindness and understanding, her alert mind, awed me. I told her this was not the first time we had met, for I knew her through her writing. Among the earliest articles I attempted to read while learning English was her ‘How to Appreciate the Beauty of Sunset.’ ‘Now, having met you in person,’ I said, ‘I will no longer think of you in terms of sunset but sunrise.’ She quickly replied, ‘How I wish that mankind would take the sunrise for their slogan and leave the shadows of sunset behind them.’

https://karsh.org/