magazine and advertising work dried to a trickle by
the late 1980s, his career rebounded with his retro-
spective exhibition and book,Personal Exposures,
which kindled renewed interest in his work.
Erwitt is one of the great masters of humor and
irony in photography, including what might be
called visual puns. Such puns match his in-person
verbal style. Usually the humor is gentle, but it can
also be biting. His whimsical, story-telling pictures
are in the tradition of Robert Doisneau, as well as
being grounded in the ‘‘decisive moment’’ aesthetic
of Henri Cartier-Bresson. He has been a prolific
publisher of books of his photographs, with an
emphasis on his humorous views, including the mas-
sive, definitive if self-consciously artlessSnaps.It
should be noted, however, that he has frequently
recycled some of the same familiar images from
book to book. Indeed, some of his ‘‘personal’’
images have even been recycled into his advertising
work. A humorous image from one of his nudist
series was used as a Barney’s advertisement in
1990, and a 1955 picture of a happy couple reflected
in a car mirror was used for a Mitsubishi advertise-
ment in 1998. Even a 1950 photograph of two men in
suits, hats, and overcoats having a fistfight on a New
York street served as an advertisement in the 1990s.
He has devoted special attention to the animal
world, especially dogs, resulting in two compilations
of canine humor,Dog/DogsandSon of Bitch.Agreat
devotee of the single story-telling image, Erwitt
has a keen sense of when something interesting
is about to unfold before his camera. His innate
sense of the absurd drives his interest in recording
strange or humorous juxtapositions. Ralph Hat-
tersley wrote of Erwitt, ‘‘He made the human co-
medy easier to bear.’’
Not all of his photographs are humorous. One of
his earliest photographs starkly portrays the reality
of segregation at ‘‘White’’ and ‘‘Colored’’ drinking
fountains. He has made tender photographs of
mothers with their infants (especially his own wife
and child), and poignant records of other intensely
human moments. His photograph of Jaqueline
Kennedy at President John F. Kennedy’s funeral
in 1963 is one of the most memorable records of
that national ordeal; earlier he had portrayed
Robert Capa’s mother weeping over his grave. A
young couple dancing in a kitchen in Valencia,
Spain (1952) has great warmth of feeling. Thanks
to his own notoriety as a photographer, he has had
access to many other famous people in his career,
including politicians from Kennedy and Lyndon
Johnson to Fidel Castro and Khrushchev, actors
Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, and Grace
Kelly, and writer Jack Kerouac.
His professional work includes magazine and
advertising photography. After working forHoli-
day magazine, he deftly shifted to advertising
photography when Magnum began receiving such
assignments in the mid-1950s. He worked for the
French, Jamaican, and Australian governments’
tourism campaigns, airlines, and Chase Manhattan
Bank, among others, as well as accounts for indus-
trial giants such as IBM, General Electric, Allied
Chemical, Eli Lilly, and General Dynamics.
Beginning in the 1970s, Erwitt channeled much of
his energy into movies, putting his early film school
training to use. His feature films, television com-
mercials, and documentaries includeBeauty Knows
No Pain(1971),Red, White and Bluegrass(1973),
and the prize-winningGlassmakers of Herat, Afgha-
nistan(1977). Other documentaries are imbued with
his ironic and humorous viewpoint. He created
short documentaries about the making of the
Arthur Penn film, Little Big Man, and another
about the training of football game half-time enter-
tainers,Beauty Knows No Pain(1971). He worked
briefly as director of photography for the feature
film,Paper Lion. There is a link between his films
and his photographs, however, as some of them
form short sequences.
In the late 1990s and early years of the new
century, Erwitt was again active in advertising
photography and television commercials.
DAVIDHaberstichBiography
Born in Paris of Russian parents, 26 July 1928. Family moved
to Milan, Italy, returned to Paris; to New York, 1939; to
Los Angeles, California, 1940, graduated from Holly-
wood High School; took courses at Los Angeles City
College (1942–1944) while working in a photographic
laboratory. To New Orleans, 1947, where he had an exhi-
bition in an artists’ club on Pirates Alley. To New York,
1948, where he began taking filmmaking courses in the
Film School of the New School for Social Research in
exchange for taking photographs for the school (1948–
1950). Began making portraits of authors for Alfred
Knopf book jackets, 1949. Assistant to commercial
photographer Valentino Sarra; a documentarian for
Standard Oil Company project. Drafted into the Army
in 1951 posted to Germany and France, where he showed
his work to Robert Capa. Joined Magnum Photos after
being discharged from services, 1953. Began working for
Holidaymagazine, 1953. President of Magnum, 1966.
Living in New York City.Selected Works
New York(Fight), 1950
North Carolina(Segregated drinking fountains), 1950
Jack Kerouac, New York, 1953ERWITT, ELLIOTT