Ernest Hemingway

Karsh, Yousuf, 1908-2002 · 1957

After reading those tales of ferocity, violence and physical suffering, I expected to meet in the author a composite image of his creations. Instead, in 1957, at his home near Havana, I found a man of peculiar gentleness, the shyest man I ever photographed. Therein, I imagine, lies the secret of his life and work. He felt in his soul, with lonely anguish, the tragedy of our species and expressed it in his writing, but, for self-protection, built around himself a wall of silence and myth... As he thought about my question I discovered he had a wonderful smile - alive, kindly, and full of understanding. But on developing my negatives I liked best the portrait printed here. It is, I think, a true portrait, the face of a giant cruelly battered by life, but invincible (Karsh, 1976).