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ELLIOTT ERWITT Fotografie |
TAKING PICTURES IS LIKE BREATHING A long time ago, a journalist and a photographer met in New York. It was some time in the early seventies.The journalist said he might be writing a book about Elliott Erwitt. "12,000 words,' he said. The usual length of the text in those days. The photographer let out a quiet groan: "In all the years I've known him, he hasn't spoken 12,000 words." Eliott Erwitt is now 76 years of age. Ask him about this story and a brief smile flashes across his face. " Hmm" and "Well" he says, and that's it. Not because he's some kind of misanthropic recluse who doesn't like talking to people. He's not. If he talks, it's always with a smile on his face. But why should he say more than he needs to? There are far too many people around who talk far too much. Erwitt looks at you, trusting his eyes more than his ears, and makes as little fuss about himself as possible. After all, that's how he learned to be a photographer. "It was always important that people forgot I was photographing them," he says. "If I'd always been talking, i'd have been the centre of attention. And you wouldn't have got a good photo. A photographer shouldn't be seen or heard." Nowadays, Elliott Erwitt lives with his fourth wife Pia Frankenberg in a large apartment next to New York's Central Park. From his window he can see most of the Park. When he turns round, he can see most of his life work because the apartment is full to the ceiling of his photos. Ask him if he's got any idea how many photos he has shot and he stops for a while to think: "What do you mean? For advertising or as a reporter? Or altogether?" OK, as a reporter: "Well ..." he stops to think, "maybe er ... I can't say"You might as well have asked him how many times he's breathed in his life. Because photography, for Erwitt, is a bit like breathing. He's always doing it. He's always got a camera at hand. And he says he only discovered many of what are now his classic pictures as he was looking through innumerable sheets of contact prints. Sometimes, he says. he doesn't even know for sure where and when a photo was shot. There are too many of them. You can't help observing Erwitt very closely as he talks and looks at his pictures. He is one of a dying breed of photographers. One with his heart close to his eyes. One who sees things we all miss: the comical touches and passionate flashes of everyday life, the brief moments where gestures and expressions say more than a thousand words. In today's world of fast-track TV pictures and digitally enhanced advertising or fashion compositions, Elliott Erwitt's work brings the old power back into photos. Snaps is the title of one of his thickest photo books. When you thumb through those snapshots, you realise they make up a mosaic of real life. There are very few photographers who can communicate a subtext in their photos like Erwitt does: emotion or anger, a glimpse of joy or feeling. The kind of thing you only spot if you observe life very closely. If you notice, for example, the look of concern in the eyes of a mother standing on a park bench and looking for her child. Or the helplessness of a dog whose owner has thrown a stick into a lake. As the legendary graphic designer Kurt Weidemann once said: "Seeing without thinking is just gaping." Each of Erwitt's photos is evidence of seeing and thinking. His photos have a past and a future. Ideally, Erwitt himself says, they illustrate "the essence of what happens" And what about his technique? Erwitt is dismissive. Once, in a book, he did talk a bit about apertures and exposure times but as he says nowadays, "basically it's enough to have a camera and read the instructions. Then anybody can take pictures. There are no great secrets in photography [..] |
ELLIOTT ERWITT Cover: New York City, 1999 Taking pictures is like breathing - About Elliott Erwitt In Focus - Bettina Rheims "Shangai" Just Published - new books Dear Reader, I know you don't do this kind of thing, but when you get to know Elliott Erwitt a bit, you really just want to hug him! He is an incredibly likeable man, blessed with the imperturbability of old age and richly gifted with an inspired eye. Elliott's eyes have seen a lot and missed nothing. Of course every photographer goes hunting for that very special fraction of a second and, like him, others are gifted with the ability to catch the irretrievable moments in the profusion of everyday events. But what makes Elliott different is his ability to guess what the subject of his photographic interest is likely to do next. A skill only mastered by someone who loves people, loves animals and indeed loves life itself. And this is where the wheel comes full circle: Someone like that just has to be hugged. |
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