TCF Ep. 210 - Elliott Erwitt

The Candid Frame: Conversations on Photography

Ibarionex R. Perello

Arts, Visual Arts

4.8 • 768 Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2013

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Born in Paris in 1928 to Russian parents, Elliott Erwitt spent his childhood in Milan, then emigrated to the US, via France, with his family in 1939. As a teenager living in Hollywood, he developed an interest in photography and worked in a commercial darkroom before experimenting with photography at Los Angeles City College. In 1948 he moved to New York and exchanged janitorial work for film classes at the New School for Social Research. Erwitt traveled in France and Italy in 1949 with his trusty Rolleiflex camera. In 1951 he was drafted for military service and undertook various photographic duties while serving in a unit of the Army Signal Corps in Germany and France. While in New York, Erwitt met Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker, the former head of the Farm Security Administration. Stryker initially hired Erwitt to work for the Standard Oil Company, where he was building up a photographic library for the company, and subsequently commissioned him to undertake a project documenting the city of Pittsburgh. In 1953 Erwitt joined Magnum Photos and worked as a freelance photographer for Collier's, Look, Life, Holiday and other luminaries in that golden period for illustrated magazines. To this day he is for hire and continues to work for a variety of journalistic and commercial outfits. In the late 1960s Erwitt served as Magnum's president for three years. He then turned to film: in the 1970s he produced several noted documentaries and in the 1980s eighteen comedy films for Home Box Office. Erwitt became known for benevolent irony, and for a humanistic sensibility traditional to the spirit of Magnum. www.elliotterwitt.com http://www.magnumphotos.com/ http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/erwittdc/ www.thecandidframe.com info@thecandidframe.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of The Candid Frame is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-on-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website or online portfolio.
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1:00.7	the candid frame.com.
1:06.5	Hi, this is EbodyNX and welcome to another episode of The Candid Frame.
1:11.7	Now, having the opportunity to talk to photographers who've had a big influence on me is one of the great benefits of running this show.
1:20.9	My education as a photographer has come largely from not classes or workshops, but instead by looking at the photographs gathered in the books that I've accumulated over the years.
1:32.3	It's been this constant revisiting of these photographs and these photographers that have helped me to develop an eye for light, composition, and so much more. Elliot Irwin has been one of those photographers for light, composition, and so much more.
1:49.9	Elliot Irwin has been one of those photographers for me, who I've learned so much from.
1:55.5	As a professional commercial and editorial photographer, he has created some of the world's most memorable photographs.
1:57.7	And whether he's photographing celebrities or dogs, his unique approach to building a photograph is always present.
2:05.6	Though his most famous images are black and white, in his new book, Elliot Irwitt's color, we see the world as captured through coda chrome and ectochrome.
2:15.1	But whether the images are washing color or monochrome, there is no
2:19.4	disputing that this photographer is one of the best.
2:25.8	Elliot, welcome to the Candid Frame. I've been a long-time fan of your work ever since my college
2:33.3	days, and I've always appreciated what you bring to your
	...

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