1928 —
Elliott Erwitt, the Paris-born American photographer and filmmaker, has built a lifetime's portfolio of globally recognised work. He joined Magnum Photos in 1953, prior to which he had been influenced by key photojournalists of the humanist movement including Robert Capa, then-president of the collective, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Erwitt had served as a photographer's assistant in the US Army, and would go on to photograph key US political events including the funeral service of John F. Kennedy and, five decades on, the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama.
Erwitt has been exhibited world-over under his own name, and at least once, in London, under the name of André S. Solidor, his pretentious alias (clock the cheeky initials). That sense of humour is often to be found within Erwitt's photography, although perhaps his most enduringly iconic shot, taken in 1955, is decidedly more romantic: a couple are seen kissing in the circular wing mirror of a car, looking out across the ocean at sunset. This and other of Erwitt's images have become synonymous with twentieth century American iconography. Erwitt has been given countless lifetime achievement awards for his contribution to photography, and his work can be found, among many other places, at the Met in New York City — where Erwitt, tireless at ninety-five, continues to live and work.
