Elliott Erwitt

Elliott Erwitt (born Elio Romano Erwitz, July 26, 1928 – November 29, 2023) was a French-born American advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white candid photos of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings. He was a member of Magnum Photos from 1953.

Early life

Elliott Erwitt was born in Paris, France, on July 26, 1928, to Jewish-Russian immigrant parents, Eugenia and Boris Erwitz, who soon moved to Italy. In 1939, when he was 10 years old, his family migrated to the United States. He studied photography and filmmaking at Los Angeles City College and the New School for Social Research. In 1951, he was drafted into the Army, and discharged in 1953.

Photography career

File:Elliott Erwitt in the Westlicht Museum of Photography, Vienna.jpg

Vienna, 2012

Erwitt served as a photographer's assistant in the 1950s in the United States Army while stationed in France and Germany. After moving to New York in 1948, he met the photographers Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker. Stryker, the former Director of the Farm Security Administration's photography department, hired Erwitt to work on a photography project for the Standard Oil Company. He then began a freelance photographer career and produced work for Collier's, Look, Life and Holiday. Erwitt was invited to become a member of Magnum Photos by the founder Robert Capa in 1953.

Again and again he has also documented socio-political events in his photographs, such as Richard Nixon's visit to the Soviet Union in 1959, the funeral service for John F. Kennedy in 1963 or the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009.

One of the subjects Erwitt has frequently photographed in his career is dogs: they have been the subject of five of his books, Son of Bitch (1974), To the Dogs (1992), Dog Dogs (1998), Woof (2005), and Elliott Erwitt's Dogs (2008).

Erwitt created an alter ego, the beret-wearing and pretentious "André S. Solidor" (which abbreviates to "ass"), "a contemporary artist, from one of the French colonies in the Caribbean, I forget which one" to "satirise the kooky excesses of contemporary photography." His work was published in a book, The Art of André S. Solidor (2009), and exhibited in 2011 at the Paul Smith Gallery in London.

Erwitt was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal in 2002 in recognition of a sustained, significant contribution to the art of photography, a Royal Photographic Society Honorary Fellowship in 1994 and the International Center for Photography's Infinity Award, Lifetime Achievement category, in 2011.

Filmmaking career

From the 1970s, he devoted much of his energy toward movies. His feature films, television commercials, and documentary films included Arthur Penn: the Director (1970), Beauty Knows No Pain (1971), Red, White and Bluegrass (1973) and the prize-winning Glassmakers of Herat, Afghanistan (1977). He was, as well, credited as camera operator for Gimme Shelter (1970), still photographer for Bob Dylan: No Direction Home (2005), and provided additional photography for Get Yer Ya Ya's Out (2009).

A collection of Erwitt's films were screened in 2011 as part of the DocNYC Festival's special event "An Evening with Elliott Erwitt".

Philanthropy

In October 2020, Erwitt partnered with the digital collectible cards company Phil Ropy and created a card to raise awareness for Project HOPE's COVID-19 response. The picture on the card shows a pair of medical rubber gloves as a reminder of how exposed health-care workers are and as an allusion to Project HOPE's logo. The proceeds from the sales of the card are redistributed to the organization.

Personal life

Erwitt was married to the German filmmaker and writer Pia Frankenberg from 1998 to 2012.

Death

Erwitt died at his home in New York on November 29, 2023, while sleeping. He was 95.

Publications

• 1972 – Photographs and Anti-Photographs Template:ISBN
• 1972 – Observations on American Architecture Template:ASIN
• 1974 – Elliott Erwitt: The Private Experience (In the series "Masters of Contemporary Photography", text by Sean Callahan.) Los Angeles: Petersen. Sean Callahan describes and to some extent explains Erwitt's work. Template:ISBN
• 1974 – Son of Bitch, photographs of dogs Template:ISBN
• 1978 – Recent Developments Template:ISBN
• 1988 – Personal Exposures Template:ISBN
• 1991 – On the Beach Template:ISBN
• 1992 – To The Dogs Template:ASIN
• 1993 – The Angel Tree
• 1994 – Between the Sexes Template:ISBN
• 1997 – 100+1 Elliott Erwitt Template:ISBN
• 1998 – Dog Dogs A collection of black and white photographs of dogs Erwitt was intrigued by throughout his world travels.Template:ISBN
• 1999 – Museum Watching Template:ISBN
• 2001 – Snaps. London & New York: Phaidon. A large anthology (over 500 pages) of Erwitt's work. Template:ISBN
• 2002 – EE 60/60 Template:ISBN
• 2002 – Elliott Erwitt's Handbook Template:ISBN
• 2005 – Woof Template:ISBN
• 2009 – Elliott Erwitt's Rome. teNeues Publishing Template:ASIN
• 2009 – Elliott Erwitt's New York Template:ISBN
• 2010 – The Art of Andre S. Solidor aka Elliott Erwitt Template:ISBN
• 2010 – Elliott Erwitt Personal Best Template:ISBN
• 2011 – Elliott Erwitt, Sequentially Yours Template:ISBN
• 2012 – Elliott Erwitt XXL – Special and Collectors Edition Template:ISBN
• 2013 – Elliott Erwitt's Kolor Kempen, Germany: teNeues Template:ISBN.
• 2017 – Pittsburgh 1950 London. Gost. With an essay by Vaughn Wallace. Photographs made in Pittsburgh for Pittsburgh Photographic Library. Template:ISBN
• 2018 – Elliot Erwitt's Scotland. teNeues Publishing Company Template:ISBN
• 2021 – Found, Not Lost. London. Gost. Template:ISBN

Exhibitions

• Roma. Fotografie di Elliott Erwitt, Museo di Roma, Rome, November 2009 – January 2010
• Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best, International Center of Photography, New York, May–August 2011
• Elliott Erwitt, Black & White and Kolor, A Gallery for Fine Photography, New Orleans, 2011
• Elliott Erwitt: Home Around The World, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin, 2016–2017
• Elliott Erwitt: Pittsburgh 1950, International Center of Photography, New York, 2018
• Elliott Erwitt: A retrospective, Musée Maillol, Paris, 2023
• Elliott Erwitt. Retrospective in Brussels, Grand Place, Brussels, 2024
• Elliott Erwitt. Vintages, Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe, 2024

Iconic photographs

• USA, New York City, 1946 – Street-level shot comparing the size of a woman's feet to a chihuahua wearing a sweater.
• USA, North Carolina, Segregated Water Fountains, 1950.
• USA, New York City, 1953 – Image of Erwitt's wife looking at their baby on a bed lit by window light.
• USA, NYC, Felix, Gladys, and Rover, 1974 – Image of a woman's booted feet between that of a Great Dane's legs and a little chihuahua.
• USSR, Russia, Moscow, Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon, 1959 – Powerful Cold War image in which Nixon is poking his index finger at Khrushchev's suit lapel.
• USA, California, 1955 – Image of a side-view mirror of an automobile parked facing a beach sunset, with a playful couple shown in the mirror as the focal point.

Collections

Erwitt's work is held in the following permanent collections:

• Harry Ransom Center, Austin, TX
• International Center of Photography, New York, NY
• Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
• Met Museum, New York, NY
• International Photography Hall of Fame, St.Louis, MO
• Richard M. Ross Art Museum, Delaware, OH

External links

• Template:Official website
• Elliott Erwitt collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
• Portfolio on Magnum Photos
• Portfolio on Robert Koch Gallery
• Peter Conrad, "Elliott Erwitt's law of intended consequences", The Observer, 20 February 2011
• Elliott Erwitt in Encyclopædia Britannica
• Photographer Elliott Erwitt's Archive to be Housed at Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin (archived), September 22, 2011 (Archive is not available online)
• PDNB Gallery, Dallas, Texas (archived)
• Template:Imdb name
• Template:PAGENAMEBASE discography at Discogs