Barbara Karsh
Barbara Karsh
Photographic artist. Business manager. Mother. "Mrs. Malak." Born July 19, 1922, in Balgonie, Sask.; died May 21, 2017, in Ottawa; aged 94.
I learned early that my parents worked as a team. My mother, Barbara, and father, Malak – one of Canada's pre-eminent photographers of landscapes and cityscapes – collaborated to take countless pictures of me when I was a child. Among my first memories is her making me giggle by pretending a giant spider was crawling up his back as his camera whirred and clicked.
They met in 1941, when Yousuf, my uncle – the renowned portrait photographer, who shared a studio in Ottawa with Dad – hired Mum as an "artistic secretary" to do everything from answer the phone to produce prints. Yousuf was taken with Barbara's work ethic and creative flair. Malak was taken with her, too, far more than the naive Prairie girl realized. A year into the job, she announced she was leaving to serve overseas with the Red Cross – and was stunned to see Malak cry. "You're not going away," he said. "You're going to marry me."
The wedding took place on Boxing Day, 1942. Two months later, Malak contracted tuberculosis and spent the next three years in the sanatorium. He emerged, apparently healthy, but relapsed in 1952. In his absence, Barbara set up shop as a baby photographer to support her three boys, Sidney, Michael and Laurence. (A daughter, Marianne, came along a decade later.)
When Dad recovered in 1954, Malak Photographs really took off. Mum managed the business in Ottawa and looked after the family as Dad traversed the country capturing its wonder and diversity through his lens.
In 1994, on the eve of major heart surgery, Malak wrote a letter to his "Darling Barbara." "I have always known I possess one of the greatest treasures any person can have for just having you beside me all the time. You were with me when we toiled hard to achieve every step of whatever success we attained in our work. I could not have ever attained it without you. … I depended on you, for advice, inspiration and needed you for the hard work behind the scenes."
Happily, Dad survived the operation. He and "Mrs. Malak" – the moniker Mum playfully used, since Dad went by his first name to differentiate himself from his brother – enjoyed another seven years together before his death in 2001.
Barbara compiled and released the book Malak's Canada the following year as a tribute to a great photographer and beloved husband. She continued their business on her own until her 2007 diagnosis of Alzheimer's. It came as a shock, given her literally photographic memory up to that point. She used to know where she filed each of Malak's photographs and excelled in finding images quickly on request. In the later stages of the disease, she spent untold hours looking for "lost" images in response to imagined clients.
Mum and I shared a special bond. She always wanted a girl and – much as she adored her boys – was thrilled when I arrived after three sons. Days before she died, with stunning clarity of mind and the most heartfelt, picture-perfect smile, she said, "I love you, Marianne." It is an image I will forever cherish.
Marianne Karsh is Barbara's daughter.
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