Elliott Erwitt

Catalog of the exhibition in Milan, Mudec Photo (October 16, 2019 – March 15, 2020)

The brilliantly offbeat look at family by one of the great masters of world photography.

Elliott Erwitt, one of the greatest and most beloved photographers on the international scene, seems to condense a cross-section of 20th-century history into his biography: born in Paris in 1928, the son of Russian Jews, he grew up in Milan until the age of ten, when he was forced to leave Italy because of racial laws, moving with his family to California, where he spent his adolescence in Hollywood. Cinema was to be a great love, in parallel with photography: armed with a Rolleiflex, he traveled in Europe in the early 1950s, shooting his first reportages, with which he attracted the attention of Robert Capa who, in 1953, made him join Magnum, launching a memorable career as a reporter, a regular contributor to the major magazines of the time, such as the legendary “Life,” and the author of countless books and exhibitions around the world. The exhibition hosted by the new space devoted to photography at Mudec is dedicated to the family: Erwitt’s sharp and brilliant gaze, filled with a mostly affectionate and very human irony, squares before our eyes a crackling and very rich catalog made up of situations, people and animals (among which the very famous dogs prevail) that show the multifaceted variety of what family is today, beyond old fences and ideological barriers. “The main point is to take the picture so that then there is no need to explain it with words.” This line illustrates one of the fundamental gifts of Erwitt’s photos: they are sufficient unto themselves and speak a language of mute eloquence that never leaves one indifferent.

BY
Biba Giacchetti – for 15 years has worked with some of the most famous photographers on the international scene such as Steve Mc Curry, James Nachtwey, Elliott Erwitt. With Giuseppe Ceroni he founded the Sudest57 agency in 2002, with which he has curated numerous exhibitions and publications in Italy and abroad.