Helen Keller and Polly Thomson

Karsh, Yousuf, 1908-2002 · 1948

On first looking into the blind but seeing eyes of perhaps the greatest woman in our world, I said to myself: 'The light comes from within.’ And what a light of courage shines through the face from the dauntless soul of Helen Keller! ~ Katherine Cornell, her devoted friend, had taken me to Miss Keller's apartment in New York, in 1948, and explained the ritual of our meeting. The woman who has no sight or hearing shook my hand and then placed her marvelously sensitive fingers on my face. In her mind's eye, I knew, she already had me completely photographed We were en rapport and I could make my portrait. Although I could speak to Miss Keller only through Polly Thompson, her faithful companion, who dialled braille into her palm, we soon developed a code of our own. At the slightest pressure of my fingers on her hand, she knew at once exactly which way I wished her to turn and at what angle I wanted her head. Her extreme sensitivity, her alert mind, her kindness and understanding, but most of her gaiety, kept me amazed throughout the whole sitting. ~ Sight and hearing had passed into her hands. Therefore a portrait of her hands was as important as a portrait of her face - hands that create light out of darkness, sound out of perpetual silence, and alone bring communion with nature and her own kind. So I photographed her hands and as I looked at the result I repeated my first observation of Miss Keller: the light did indeed come from within (Karsh, 1976).