In 1939, Elliott Erwitt emigrated with his family from Italy, where he had grown up, to the USA. There he worked as a photographer and attended film courses at the New School for Social Research. He travelled through Europe and worked as a reportage photographer. Following his acquaintance with Robert Capa and Edward Steichen, Erwitt joined the photo agency Magnum in 1953 and acted as president there from 1966 to 1969.
(...) Continue readingErwitt’s pictures tell of contemporary history, but also show people in their everyday lives, in an often-humorous way. His dog photographs, which the self-confessed dog fan took throughout his life, are also famous.
Elliott Erwitt – Early passion for photography and filmmaking
Elliott Erwitt was born Elio Romano Erwitt on 26 July 1928 in Paris. The son of Jewish-Russian parents, he spent the majority of his childhood in Milan, before his family fled to the USA in 1939 to escape the National Socialist persecution of the Jews. As a teenager in Hollywood, he developed an interest in photography and filmmaking and attended Los Angeles City College, producing prints from the pictures of famous personalities in the dark room of a commercial film studio. In 1948, Erwitt went to New York where he financed further studies at the New School for Social Research with caretaker work. He travelled through France and Italy in 1949 and captured his impressions with his reliable Rolleiflex camera. The following year, he was conscripted into the military; his fear of having to fight in the bloody Korean War did not materialise, and instead he returned to Europe as a soldier. Whilst stationed with an intelligence unit in France and Germany, he was able to work as a darkroom assistant and further improve his photographic skills.
Photographic success led to Magnum membership
Elliott Erwitt made the acquaintance of the photographers Robert Capa, Edward Steichen and Roy Stryker in New York, who had a strong influence on his development. As former head of the Farm Security Administration’s photographic department, Stryker was well connected, and commissioned Erwitt to build a photo library for the Standard Oil Company and a documentary for the city of Pittsburgh. Erwitt then went on to work as a freelance photographer and supplied pictures to renowned journals such as Collier’s, Holiday, LIFE and Look. In view of the unmistakeably high quality of his pictures, the Magnum founder, Robert Capa, invited him to become a member of the fledgling photo agency. Erwitt accepted the invitation and in the 1960s became president. Reportages, commercial contracts and his own ‘snapshots’ represented the core of Erwitt’s photographic work in the years that followed. In the 1970s, he turned increasingly to the film industry and was married for a time to the German filmmaker Pia Frankenberg. He shot several documentaries and produced eighteen comedies for HBO in the 1980s.
A humorous artist with a love of dogs
For all his artistic seriousness, Elliott Erwitt always demonstrated great wit. His humour, imbued with friendly irony, became a trademark of his work, as did his favourite motif: dogs. Elliott Erwitt loved dogs, photographed them often, and made them the theme of a total of five successful illustrated books published between 1974 and 2008. He caricatured his own profession with his alter ego, the beret-wearing photo artist from the Caribbean, ‘André S. Solidor’, whose initials – not by coincidence - can be shortened to ass. The fictional character was dedicated his own book, The Art of André S: Solidor, and an exhibition in the Paul Smith Gallery in London. Elliott Erwitt has received prizes and awards for his photographic work, including the Infinity Award of the International Center for Photography for his life’s work.
Elliott Erwitt - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
