Elliott Erwitt
Elliott Erwitt
Elliott Erwittis an advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white candid shots of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings— a master of Henri Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment"...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhotographer
Date of Birth26 July 1928
CountryFrance
photography goal laughing
Making people laugh is one of the highest achievements you can have. And when you can make someone laugh and cry, alternatively, as Chaplin does - now that's the highest of all personal achievements. I don't know that I aim for it, but I recognize it as the supreme goal.
stars movement way
In those simpler days, you could just take pictures of movie stars and show them the way they were, as normal human beings. And if I felt part of any movement at the time, it was just to do that - to be journalistic and photograph what is, rather than what is made up.
flower people landscape
I dislike landscapes. I only like people, and plastic flowers.
photographer vocation trade
I am a professional photographer by trade and an amateur photographer by vocation.
responsibility guarantees-that luck
If you've got no responsibility and don't have to generate a certain amount of cash each month, and can live on a shoestring, and are ambitious enough, then you might have a chance. You can be dedicated but that is no guarantee that you'll make it. I rely on a hunch, a little luck, and some cunning.
taking-pictures advantage
The advantage of taking pictures of the famous is that they get published.
serious
I am serious about not being serious
photography ifs
If you keep your cool, you'll get everything.
photography hands car
There's no great mystique to photography. A lot of photographers like to put their hands up to their forehead and tell you how they've suffered and so forth. Well, I just rent a car and drive to the place and take the pictures.
thinking photographer
I'm an amateur photographer, apart from being a professional one, and I think maybe my amateur pictures are the better ones.
photography humanity care
It's about reacting to what you see, hopefully without preconception. You can find pictures anywhere. It's simply a matter of noticing things and organising them. You just have to care about what's around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy.
visuals
A visual sense is something you either have or you don't.
photographer curious persons
If you're not a curious person, you're certainly not going to be a good photographer.
photography mean sky
Quality doesn't mean deep blacks and whatever tonal range. That's not quality, that's a kind of quality. The pictures of Robert Frank might strike someone as being sloppy-the tone range isn't right and things like that-but they're far superior to the pictures of Ansel Adams with regard to quality, because the quality of Ansel Adams, if I may say so, is essentially the quality of a postcard. But the quality of Robert Frank is a quality that has something to do with what he's doing, what his mind is. It's not balancing out the sky to the sand and so forth. It's got to do with intention.