592 - Elliott Erwitt* (Paris 1928 - 2023 New York City)

Elliott Erwitt* (Paris 1928 - 2023 New York City) Anthony Perkins and Sophia Loren in Five Miles to Midnight, 1962 vintage gelatin silver print 20,5 x 30,2 cm verso photographer's stamp SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE € 500 - 1200 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE € 500 Elliott Erwitt (1928–2023) was a French-American photographer and filmmaker who became a member of Magnum Photos in 1953. After spending his youth in Italy and the United States, he studied photography and film; in New York, he met Edward Steichen, Robert Capa, and Roy Stryker, all of whom became key supporters of his early career. Stryker commissioned him for projects such as photographic work for Standard Oil and a study of Pittsburgh, while Capa recruited him to Magnum in 1953. Erwitt developed a distinctive visual language characterized by black-and-white photography, documentary observation, subtle humor, and visual irony. In addition to capturing everyday scenes, he photographed numerous public figures—including Marlene Dietrich, Jacqueline Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara—blending reportage, portraiture, and political photography. Erwitt’s work belongs to the tradition of humanistic and subjective documentary photography, with clear links to the practices of Robert Capa, Edward Steichen, and Roy Stryker. His photographs of dogs, a body of work developed over decades, hold a special place in his oeuvre; they combine everyday observation, absurd humor, and precisely composed snapshots. This broader context also encompasses artists like William Wegman and Gerrard Gethings, who—in very different ways—developed animal portraiture into a distinct photographic genre; Wegman’s photographs of Weimaraners and Gethings’ staged animal portraits serve as later points of comparison. In contrast, Erwitt’s own interest in dogs remains closely tied to the observation of everyday life, the visual punchline, and the humanistic perspective that were hallmarks of his work with Magnum. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights and platform fee. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid, the buyer's premium and platform fee. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.