Elliott Erwitt – Platinum Prints & Classic Snaps

6th Sep 2010

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© Elliott Erwitt, USA. New York. 1974.Felix, Gladys and Rover.

15 September – 13 November, 2010, Magnum Print Room, London

Four of WPO Academy Member Elliott Erwitt’s most iconic images will be presented in the UK for the first time as editioned, large format platinum prints, in an exhibition of fine photographs spanning Erwitt’s distinguished career at the Magnum Print Room in London. Produced in May 2010 these 30”x40” platinum prints feature Erwitt’s photographs of racial segregation in North Carolina, 1950; a kiss reflected in the wing mirror of a car, California, 1955; a glamorous movie star Marilyn Monroe, New York, 1956 and one of his best loved pictures of the relationship between man and dog Felix, Gladys and Rover (New York, 1976).

Born in 1928 to Russian parents in Paris, Erwitt spent his childhood in Italy before emigrating to the United States. He developed an interest in photography as a teenager in Hollywood, and worked in a commercial darkroom in his spare time before experimenting with photography at college. In 1948 he moved to New York where he took film classes, subsequently travelling to Italy and France in 1949. Drafted for military service in 1951, he undertook various photographic duties while serving in a unit of the Army Signal Corps in Germany and France. He joined Magnum in 1953 at the invitation of Robert Capa.

Erwitt’s archive includes classic photojournalism and portraits of film stars from Hollywood and Magnum’s golden age in the 1950s, along with more personal documentary, observational work and witty sequences, more often than not including one of his favourite subjects, dogs. A master of the one-liner, Erwitt is as unpretentious and eloquent as his photographs, which communicate an infectious joie de vivre.

© Elliott Erwitt

Included alongside the platinum set are signed silver gelatin prints of some of Erwitt’s most well-known images: portraits of Marlon Brando (1954), Grace Kelly (1956), Sophia Loren (1962) Che Guevara (1964) and his beloved dogs, as well as his evocative documentary of stolen moments such as the couple dancing in a kitchen in Spain (1952), a dove taking flight (1955), and a mother (his then wife) and baby (1953).

September 15  - November 13 2010
Wed – Fri 11.00 – 16.30
Sat 10.00 – 13.00
The Magnum Print Room
63 Gee Street
London EC1V 3RS
02074901771