‘It’s good when you can’t explain a picture, because that means it’s visual’.
Elliott Erwitt has been taking pictures for over fifty years. Photographing all over the world, his images have been the subject of countless books and exhibitions. His unmistakeable, often witty style gives us a snapshot of the famous and the ordinary, the strange and the mundane, through the lens of one of our era’s finest image-makers.
Born in Paris on July 26th 1928, Erwitt spent his childhood in Milan. His family moved back to Paris in 1938, and emmigrated to New York the following year before moving to Los Angeles in 1941. His interest in photography began while he was a teenager living in Hollywood. While attending Hollywood High School, he began working in a commercial darkroom. In 1948 Erwitt moved to New York, where he met Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker. After spending the year 1949 travelling in France and Italy, Erwitt returned to New York and began working as a professional photographer. Drafted into the army in 1951, he continued to take photographs while stationed in Germany and France.
Elliott Erwitt was invited to join Magnum Photos in 1953 by Robert Capa. A member of the prestigious agency ever since, Erwitt has served several terms as its president. One of the leading figures in the competitive field of magazine photography, Erwitt’s journalistic essays, illustrations and advertisements have been featured in publications around the world for more than forty years.
While continuing his work as a still photographer, Erwitt began making films in 1970. His documentaries include Beauty Knows no Pain (1971), Red, White and Bluegrass (1973) made with the assistance of an American Film Institute grant, and the prize winning Glass Makers of Herat (1977). Erwitt has produced seventeen comedy and satire specials for Home Box Office.
His books include Eastern Europe (1965), Photographs and Anti Photographs (1972), Observations on American Architecture (1972), Elliott Erwitt, The Private Experience (1974), Son of Bitch (1974), Recent Developments (1978), The Angel Tree (1984), Elliott Erwitt: Personal Exposures (1988), Photopoche #35 (1988), Elliott Erwitt: On the Beach (1991), Elliott Erwitt: To the Dogs (1992), The Angel Tree, A Christmas Celebration (1993), Between the Sexes (1994), Museum Watching (1998 Japanese Edition), Dogs, Dogs (1998) and Snaps (2001), Personal Best (2006), Unseen (2007) and New York (2008).
Erwitt has had one-man exhibitions in numerous museums and galleries around the world, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art, Paris, Kunsthaus, Zurich, Photokina, Cologne and most recently the Reina Sofia in Madrid. Several editions of a large retrospective exhibition based on his book Personal Exposures have been touring the United States, Europe and Japan since 1989. Other exhibitions currently travelling the globe include ‘To the Dogs’, ‘On the Beach’ and ‘Museum Watching’.
Elliott Erwitt has also been awarded the Centenary Medal by The Royal Photographic Society.