Elliot Erwitt Research Paper

Elliot Erwitt is a famous photographer today with many well known pictures, some of war times, beaches, children, hands, and dogs. He was born in France with Russian émigré parents in 1928, where he spent a good portion of his childhood in Italy. His family started getting closer and closer to move to the United States in 1939, where he eventually settled in New York for two years and then moved again to Los Angeles. Erwitt got to New York City with the help of the United States Army in the 50’s; he was drafted and spent a few years in the Army where he still kept taking photos. He took these photos apart from his military duties while in New Jersey, Germany, and France. Before leaving for the military he had been in New York City looking for work where he found men named Edward Steichen, Robert Capa, and Roy Stryker who liked his photographs and became mentors to him. After leaving the military in 1953 Elliott was invited to join Magnum Photos as a member by its founder Robert Capa. He is still active in Magnum Photos today where he has illustrations, journals, and advertisements featured all around the world. He has his own books as well as these other …show more content…
He does a lot of black and white photography even today, I feel the reason he does this is because he started taking pictures when all that was available was black and white. Continuing to take black and white photos might keep him close to his roots, or he could just enjoy the look of black and white. Erwitt has many photos of dogs and children, this could be due to him liking their energy as beings or just the fact that he enjoys dogs and children. He has a wide variety of shots, some with happiness all around while others it could be very sad. People protesting violence with the offer of a flower as they hold their bayonets, and happy photos like the couple kissing and smiling shown through a mirror of a