Elliott Erwitt, the son of Russian immigrants, was born in France in 1928. He lived in Italy and in France before moving to New York in 1939. For about fifty years he has been portraying the themes and subjects which are dear to him: dogs, beaches, families, politics, museum-visitors or children. A member of Magnum since 1953, he also worked for Life magazine and took part in the famous 'Family of Man' exhibition at the MOMA in New York in 1955. Snapshot photographer Erwitt appears to concentrate on the ordinariness of his subject in order to better reveal irony and also humour, even when the subject is serious. It is for this reason that he appreciates and exploits the unexpected in his everlasting search for the unusual. In this search for contradiction and coincidence he demonstrates the absurdity of everyday life.
2007: - "Personal Best", Portland Art Museum, USA - "Bestiarium" (collective exhiition), Esther Woerdehoff Gallery, Paris 2006: - Festival Visa pour l’Image, Perpignan, France - Musée National des Beaux-Arts, Santiago, Chile - "Six Decades", Andrew Smith Gallery, San Francisco - "A retrospective", National Museum of Photography, Bradford, Great Britain 2005: - Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie de Guangzhou, China - "Schnappschüsse", NRW Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft, Düsseldorf, Germany - "Instantanés d’un siècle, chefs d’œuvres de la Collection Photographique de la FNAC", Grilles du Sénat, Paris - "Vintage and Modern", Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago - "Homeland, USA," Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco 2004: - "Magnum : Photographies 1950-1975", Johannes Faber Gallery, Austria - "Magic Hands", Galerie Leica, Solms, Prague, NYC, Tokyo - Biennale Internationale de Photographie de Brescia, Italia 2002: Museum Reina Sofia, Madrid
Recent publications: 2006: "Personal Best", Ed. TeNeus 2005: "Woof", préf. Trudie Styler, Chronicle Books, USA 2004: "Mohamed Ali par les photographes de Magnum", Ed. de la Martinière, France "Chiens (et autres espèces bizarres) et Amoureux (et autres optimistes incurables)", Presses de la Cité, France 2001: "Snaps", Ed. Phaidon
