December 2023
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
New York City
1955
Gelatin silver print
The essence of what happens
Elliott Erwitt’s “art of observation” is a gift of the eye and the mind, where the artist must be truly aware of the world around them in order to capture the mosaic of reality.
Look at the photograph Jackie Kennedy, Arlington, Virginia (1963, below). Observe the split second that particular look of despair was present on Jackie’s face. And there was Erwitt fully aware, in the moment, with his gift of the eye and the mind – and he knew, he absolutely knew that was the moment to take the photograph.
As with much of his work it is the subtle cadences within the image that create their emotional power and magic: sadness, happiness, whimsy, comedy, anger, loneliness, joy – all captured through the reality of the visual language of the image, fully acknowledged in the heart and the mind of the viewer when they imbibe (absorb the ideas) of their spirit.
Dr Marcus Bunyan
Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.
“You either see, or you don’t see.”
Elliott Erwitt
“The work I care about is terribly simple … I observe, I try to entertain, but above all I want pictures that are emotion.”
Elliott Erwitt. Personal Exposures. W. W. Norton & Company, 1988
“You can take a picture of the most wonderful situation and it’s lifeless, nothing comes through… Then you can take a picture of nothing, of someone scratching his nose, and it turns out to be a great picture.”
Elliott Erwitt
“The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words. To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
Elliott Erwitt
“All the technique in the world doesn’t compensate for the inability to notice.”
Elliott Erwitt
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Pasadena, California, USA
Nd
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
USA. California. Berkeley
1956
Gelatin silver print
Photographers with a comic outlook on life seldom win the acclaim granted to exalters of nature or chroniclers of war and squalor. Elliott Erwitt, who died at 95 on Wednesday at his home in Manhattan, was an exception.
For more than six decades he used his camera to tell visual jokes, finding material wherever he strolled. His sharp eye for silly, sometimes telling conjunctions – a dog lying on its back in a cemetery, a glowing Coca-Cola machine amid a public display of missiles in Alabama, a mangy potted plant in a tacky Miami Beach ballroom – earned him constant assignments as well as the affection of a public that shared his sweet, Chaplin-esque sense of the absurd.
Richard B. Woodward. “Elliott Erwitt, Whose Photos Are Famous, and Often Funny, Dies at 95,” on The New York Times website Nov. 30, 2023 [Online] Cited 03/12/2023
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
USA. New York, New York
1953
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Felix, Gladys and Rover (New York, USA)
New York City, 1974
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Moscow, USSR
1959
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Jackie Kennedy, Arlington, Virginia
1963
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Wilmington, North Carolina
1950
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Paris, France
1989
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
USA. New York City
1988
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Pittsburgh, USA
1950
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Brazil. Buzios
1990
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Guanajuato, Mexico
1957
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
France, Paris, Lucienne Van Kan
1952
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Fort Dix, USA
1951
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Bakersfield, USA
1983
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Bal, Paris, France
1967
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Spain, Valencia
1952
Gelatin silver print
Elliott Erwitt (American born France, 1928-2023)
Huntsville, Alabama
1974
Gelatin silver print
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