New York to host "Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best" retrospective

PanARMENIAN.Net - "Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best" at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York will run from May 20 to August 28, 2011.

This major retrospective showcases the career of photographer and filmmaker Elliott Erwitt, the recipient of this year's ICP Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement, Art Knowledge News reported.

Distinguished as both a documentary and commercial photographer, Erwitt has made some of the most memorable photographs of the twentieth century, including portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, and Che Guevara, as well as astonishing scenes of everyday life, filled with poetry, wit, and special sense of humor. Born in Paris in 1928 to Russian émigrés, On view are over 100 of his favorite images from the past sixty years, as well as some previously unseen and unpublished prints from his early work.

Elliott Erwitt was born on July 26, 1928, in Paris, but spent his childhood in Milan. His family returned to Paris in 1938, before immigrating to the USA the following year. His interest in photography began while he was a teenager living in Hollywood, and he began working in a commercial darkroom while attending Hollywood High School. In 1948 Erwitt moved to New York and sought out Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker, who would become his mentors. After spending 1949 traveling in France and Italy, Erwitt returned to New York and began working as a professional photographer.