Elliott Erwitt
[Photographer, b. 1928, Paris, France, lives in New York.]

 Learn the craft (which is not very hard). Carefully study past work of photographers and classic painters. Look and learn from movies. See where you can fit in as a ‘commercial’ photographer – ‘commercial’ meaning working for others and delivering a product on command. But most of all keep your personal photography as your separate hobby. If you are very good and diligent it just may pay off. 
 I don’t think when I’m taking a photograph. What I love best is spontaneity. 
 Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive. 
 To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them. 
 I wasn’t imposing my presence on anyone... which is very important for a would-be journalist. I stayed back. Always let people be themselves. 
 There are so many fine photographers who are underrated that it would be unfair to name just one. Look at the New York Times, where the quality of photography has so leaped forward—these are not known photographers, they’re just workaday photographers who take wonderful pictures. Recognition comes as a result of luck, timing and the situation at large. 
 He [Yousef Karsh] thoroughly researches his subject, knows wife’s name, or man’s hobby, and uses this information to the hilt. He’s the ultimate flatterer. 
 Everything is there in front of us. If we knew what we were looking for, we’d see the great movements of tomorrow in the miniscule details of today. 
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