Elliott Erwitt (b. 26 July 1928 Paris, France) is 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".
Purveyor of the "non-photograph", he combines a deceptively casual approach with an unrivalled, sometimes gloriously silly, visual sense of wit. Even those who don't recognise Erwitt by name will know his infamous dog photographs, collected in books such as To the Dogs and Son of Beach, often comparing bulldogs and poodles to their jowly or primped-up owners. One famously minimalist example simply shows a woman's crossed legs upstaged by her pet's eager paws protruding from beneath a coffee table. "There's not a sitter in his gallery who does not melt the heart," wrote PG Wodehouse of Erwitt's canine subjects, "and no beastly class distinctions, either. Thoroughbreds and mutts, they are all there."
While criticism might seem churlish in the face of Erwitt's gentle humour, there have been whispers that his work is "light-weight", "flippant", even "inconsequential". But with 19 books to his credit, including a new paperback edition of his career-spanning Snaps, he remains one of the most popular and celebrated photographers in the world. "He's not only talented but extremely intelligent," says John Szarkowski, director emeritus of the Museum of Modern Art's photography department, "and, as we know, in our world intelligence often passes for wit - if you tell the truth, people think you are being funny, and in consequence he is one of the few photographers whose work is also identified by extraordinary wit."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Erwitt (Date Accessed 22/03/15)
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/dec/27/photography The Guardian, John O'Mahony 27/12/02
(Date Accessed 22/03/15)
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