Elliott Erwitt
[Photographer, b. 1928, Paris, France, lives in New York.]
I don’t believe that photography can change the world, but it can show the world changing.
It’s just seeing—at least the photography I care about. You either see or you don’t see. The rest is academic. Anyone can learn how to develop. It’s how you organize what you see into a picture.
If there’s cruelty in any of my photographs, it’s not intended. It’s just that I’m attracted to certain things in life that I find both tender and dramatic.
You have to devote yourself totally to be successful at it.
Do what the client wants, not what you want.
(On commercial photography)
Balance of light is the problem, not the amount. Balance between shadows and highlights determines where the emphasis goes in the picture... make sure the major light in a picture falls at right angles to the camera.
Dogs are instinctive, they have a memory of the instant, like photography.
Now very often events are set up for photographers... The weddings are orchestrated about the photographers taking the picture, because if it hasn’t been photographed it doesn’t really exist.
