THIS WEEK’S MUSE
“You have to devote yourself totally to be successful at it.”
ELLIOTT ERWITT, PHOTOGRAPHER
Elio Romano Erwitz was born to Russian parents in Paris in 1928. Via a spell in Milan, the family moved to the US at the outbreak of World War II. At sixteen, he picked up a camera and, until his death in 2023, never put it down.
Known as Elliott Erwitt, he became one of the most renowned photographers of the 20th century. In fact, he became two photographers with two cameras and with two agendas – one amateur one professional. This explanation is only partly metaphorical and neatly frames his approach to photography and our enjoyment of it.
On the one hand, he has captured some of the world’s most famous faces. Marilyn Monroe, Richard Nixon, Jackie Kennedy, Fidel Castro, Barack Obama, Nikita Khrushchev, and many more have filled his viewfinder in the name of selling newspaper columns and magazine pages. On the other hand, he was a satirist, humorist, and artist, telling tiny stories through exquisitely captured moments on the streets of New York. “I’m perfectly serious about everything,” he said. “Whether it’s humorous or not.”
While today we look at Erwitt’s body of work with the same admiration, enjoyment, or pleasure, he saw it as distinctly divided – between those photographs he made for his clients and those he made for himself: professional versus amateur, theirs versus his. One camera for their photographs, one for his.
“I’m an amateur photographer, apart from being a professional one, and I think maybe my amateur pictures are the better ones.”
His style—for “both Erwitt’s!—is ardently and classically journalistic, telling a story with every image, ensuring he is at the right place at the right time and having the necessary insight to record a scene. “You can find pictures anywhere,” he said. “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.”
He was wonderfully pragmatic about his work, preferring to talk about luck over talent. Lucky to be born in Paris, lucky to move to the US, lucky to pick up a camera, lucky to meet photographers in the army, lucky to be invited to join Magnum by Robert Capa, lucky for being asked to photograph the Nixon / Khrushchev debate…
But after a successful career spanning over seventy years, it’s hard to believe luck is anything other than the residue of design and the dedicated and deliberate intent to do something unbelievably difficult – create great art. Erwitt seems to disagree – “The best things happen when you just happen to be somewhere with a camera,” he said, preferring the explanation of good luck.
HAPPENING
9:30–10:30am / online
Wednesday, January 17,
8:30–9:30am / in gallery
YOGA CLASS
with Lees Yunits
Each session: $17
Six sessions:
Thursday, January 11
Pick-up between 4:30–5:30pm
GOURMET TAKE-OUT: LAMB STEW FOR A CHILLY NIGHT
with Chef Joe Cizynski
Member: $40
Non-Member: $45