1941 - Photography

Photography

Photographs: New York-born LIFE photographer David E. Scherman, 25, takes pictures from a lifeboat April 17 of the German "merchant" ship that has sunk the Egyptian passenger liner Zamzam on which he and 201 others have been sailing en route to Cape Town. He conceals his exposed film in toothpaste tubes that are sticking out of his shirt pocket along with a toothbrush when the Germans land him and the others in Portugal. LIFE prints the pictures, and British naval units use them to identify and sink the surface raider Atlantis, which has sunk 22 liners and merchant ships on the Atlantic.

Yousuf Karsh gains worldwide fame with his portrait of Britain's Prime Minister Churchill, who has come to Ottawa after meeting in August with President Roosevelt off the coast of Newfoundland (see Karsh, 1932). The portrait shows Churchill's bulldog determination and launches Karsh, now 32, on a career as other statesmen, royal personages, industrial leaders, artists, and writers clamor to have him take their pictures.