(b Paris, 26 July 1928). American photographer and film maker. He studied film at the New School for Social Research, New York, from 1948 to 1950. From 1951 to 1953 he worked as a photographic assistant for the US Army Signal Corps and under Roy Stryker (1882-1975) at the Standard Oil Company, New Jersey, from 1950 to 1952. From 1953 he was a freelance photographer and film maker and a member of the Magnum photographic agency. Although he was highly successful in the field of advertising, his international reputation was based on his personal work. His street photographs, wry and quirky narratives, concentrated on the vagaries of human existence. They often relied heavily on visual puns. Unrelated and sometimes bizarre events, for example the small dog captured in mid-air in Ballycotton, Ireland (1968; see Photographs and Anti-photographs, p. 48), are held together within the 35 mm frame by strong graphic and formal compositions. Erwitt's films include Dustin Hoffman, Arthur Penn: The Director, Beauty Knows No Pain and Red, White and Bluegrass.
See the Abbreviations for further details.
