elliot erwitt

erwitt

for those of you who haven’t yet had the pleasure: this is elliot erwitt. this guy is the perfect photographer. it seems he’ll never leave or enter anywhere without a camera in hand. erwitt is the reason i bring my camera(s) around at all times. i like his sense of timing (master of the “indecisive moment“), his sense of humor, what he sees and what he’s looking for (or what i think he’s looking for), and the slightly surreal character of most of his work. in my opinion, elliot erwitt is street photography. the picture above is a perfect example of the wit and excellence of erwitt’s photographs.

when i first stumbled across mr. erwitt, in an article in a pretentious photo magazine, two things happened simultaneously:

one; it dawned on me that the sort of photography i was born to do was called ’street photography’, and
two; because of erwitt’s genius i felt very small and insignificant and i just wanted to put all my cameras in a bag and donate them all to charity.

then i went ahead and read the words in the article too, and as i read the last part of the interview, i exhaled and i felt the comfort of a smile on my face:

reporter : if i asked you to choose one single image of yours that expresses everything you feel about life and the great conundrum of human existence – would you be able to do it?
erwitt : – you must be kidding! i am just a photographer and not jesus christ!

take a peek at the photographer pages on magnum photos’ websites if you want.

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