Elliott Erwitt was a French-born American living between July 1928 and November 2023. He is known for his black and white candid street photography. He enjoyed observing and looking for absurd and contrasting situations to photograph. His photographs of dogs are particularly outstanding. He was a member of Magnum Photos for an incredible seventy years. It was one of the founders, Robert Capa, that invited him to join. He is known for not over planning and just taking photos of what he came across. He liked to wander. He was a Flaneur. While he was like most street photographers attracted to people and animals, he would also photograph absurd juxtapositions that he came accross. An example of this would be a photo of Jesus on the cross next to a PEPSI advertisement.

USA 1974 New York

Elliott Erwitt’s photographs more than his contempories at Magnum such as Capa, Cartier-Bresson, and others, were more playful, humorous, and amusing. He was certainly not an in your face photographer like Bruce Gilden, William Klein, or Garry Winogrand. He took a more relaxed approach waiting for the photograph come to him rather than chasing after it. He had an amazing ability to see interesting juxtapositions such as the bird next to a water facet that look like one another. He did take some iconic photos of famous people like Marilyn Monroe, Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev. He was in the right place at the right time and was always very good at finding a good composition. Nevertheles, he always considered that content was more crucial than form. Elliott Erwitt was perhaps lucky on some occasions, but by sheer hard work he made his own luck too. During his career he published more than forty books.

Florida Keys 1968

Argentina 2001 Valdes peninsula