Elliott Erwitt Contact Sheet © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos
Elliott Erwitt
The wisdom of a Magnum photographer
Elliott Erwitt, French-born American photographer and filmmaker who is known for his uncanny ability to capture on film the humour and irony of everyday life.
Erwitt was born to Russian parents living in Paris. The family moved to Milan when Erwitt was young and lived there throughout the 1930s. They immigrated to New York City just days before the outbreak of World War II. In 1941, after his parents separated, Erwitt moved to Los Angeles with his father. When Erwitt was just 16 years old, however, his father moved to New Orleans, leaving Erwitt on his own. He continued to attend high school and began teaching himself photography. To earn money, Erwitt hired himself out as a wedding photographer. He studied photography at Los Angeles City College and in 1948 moved to New York City, where he took photography and filmmaking classes at the New School for Social Research (now The New School) until 1950. In New York Erwitt met photographers Edward Steichen, Roy Stryker, and Robert Capa. Stryker got him a job documenting Pittsburgh, which resulted in Erwitt’s first significant photo essay. After military service as a photographer in France and Germany from 1951 to 1953, Erwitt returned to New York City, joined Capa’s recently established Magnum Photos agency, and launched a successful career that encompassed commercial, journalistic, editorial, and personal photography.
New Hampshire, USA. 1958. © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos
How do you find your photographic subjects?
I don't know. You just look. My photographic life is divided into two sections: the amateur and the professional. In the professional one, you have to do what people want, what they expect from you. In the personal one you just take pictures of things you see that interest you. Obviously I prefer the personal ones, but I like my profession a lot. I don't make any excuses for it.
What do you think is an artist's responsibility in society?
I guess if someone is a so-called artist it means that he has a special talent for translating the visual into something that communicates an emotion to people, that teaches them something or points something out that they wouldn't have known on their own. If one does that than one has achieved one's goal. Communication, I think that's what it's about.
Interview by By Andrew M. Goldstein on Artspace
Milan, Italy. 1999 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos
“His technique is faultless, but he always stresses that the instinct that creates great photography is casual and uncontrollable: “I’ll always be an amateur photographer,” he says, pointing out that the word amateur comes from the Latin for “to love”. ”
“Photography is really very simple. Making pictures is a very simple act. There are no great secrets. My absolute conviction is that if you’re working reasonably well the only important thing is to keep shooting. Commercial or fine art, it doesn’t matter. Nothing happens when you sit at home.”
New York City, USA. 1962. © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos
“A picture that engages you, that makes you think, that gives you some kind of emotion, makes you laugh or cry. That’s a good picture.”
Young girl in dress. East Hampton, New York State, USA. 1992 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos
“My wish for the future of photography is that it might continue to have some relevance to the human condition and might represent work that evokes knowledge and emotions. That photography has content rather than just form. And I hope that there will be enough produce to balance out the visual garbage that one sees in our current life.”
The engagement party of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.
New York, USA. January 1956 © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos
“It’s about reacting to what you see, hopefully without preconception. You can find pictures anywhere. It’s simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what’s around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy.”