Elliott Erwitt

The exhibition opens with special ticket & for Members on March 20,
and with museum ticket on March 21.

This spring, Fotografiska Tallinn presents Through Elliott Erwitt’s Playful Eyes, a retrospective exhibition celebrating the legendary photographer Elliott Erwitt (1928–2023). This exhibition explores Erwitt’s seven decades of creative photography, highlighting playful everyday moments, humorous perspectives, and thought-provoking reflections. It is Fotografiska’s tribute to the extraordinary journey and talent of the legendary artist, showcasing nearly 100 images that represent the pinnacle of street photography.

Erwitt had a rare ability to be in the right place at the right time, and his visual language is marked by a subtle wit that captures the warmth, playfulness, and emotional richness of everyday life. The exhibition features his iconic black-and-white photographs alongside lesser-known works, including some of his earliest images from 1949 and a selection of color photographs from his later creative period.

I am Elliott Erwitt

“I am Elliott Erwitt and I've been that for a number of years.

When I get up in the morning I brush my teeth and go about my business, and if I am going anywhere interesting I take my camera along.

I rarely stage pictures. I wait for them... let them take their own time. Sometimes, you think something’s going to happen, so you wait. It may pan out; it may not. That’s a wonderful thing about pictures – things can happen. It’s not that I’m against staging, or anything else, when you’re not cheating or working with false purposes. Even as you wait, you are, in a way, arranging and manipulating. You’re getting ready to frame the event, when it happens, the way you want it to be framed. Maybe I’m contradicting myself. Well, okay.

Maybe this should be a secret: photography is a lazy man’s profession. You don’t have to train, like a musician or a doctor or a ballet dancer. You only need the modest ability to achieve order and composition or find the right balance of mood. And, occasionally, you may reveal a message in what you do. That is sufficient. Being in the right place at the right moment can also help.”

The text is an extract from the foreword Dedication written by Elliott Erwitt for the book Personal Exposures, published in 1988.

Elliott Erwitt

Elliott Erwitt was born in Paris to Russian parents. Erwitt spent his childhood in Milan, then emigrated to the US, via France, with his family in 1939. As a teenager living in Hollywood, he developed an interest in photography and worked in a commercial darkroom processing “signed” prints for fans of movie stars, before experimenting with photography at Los Angeles City College. In 1948, he moved to New York and exchanged janitorial work for film classes at the New School for Social Research.​ While in New York, Erwitt met Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker, the former head of the Farm Security Administration. Stryker initially hired Erwitt to work for the Standard Oil Company, where he was building up a photographic library for the company, and subsequently commissioned him to undertake a project documenting the city of Pittsburgh.

In 1949, Erwitt returned to Europe traveling and photographing in France and Italy with his trusty Rolleiflex camera, thus marking the start of his professional career. In 1951, he was drafted for military service and undertook various photographic duties while serving in a unit of the Army Signal Corps in Germany and France.

In 1953, Erwitt was invited to join Magnum Photos as a member by its founder Robert Capa. He worked as a freelance photographer for Collier’s, Look, LIFE, Holiday, and other luminaries in that golden period for illustrated magazines. In the late 1960s, Erwitt served as Magnum’s President for three years. While continuing his work as a photographer, Erwitt began making films in the 1970s, he produced several notable documentaries and in the 1980s eighteen comedy films for HBO.

Erwitt has been one of the leading figures in the competitive field of photography. His journalistic essays, illustrations, and advertisements have been featured in publications around the world for over half a century. He became known for benevolent irony, and for a humanistic sensibility traditional to the spirit of Magnum.

The exhibition curators are Jessica Jarl, Global Director of Exhibitions Fotografiska, and Maarja Loorents, Head of Exhibitions at Fotografiska Tallinn, in collaboration with the local team.

All photographs are courtesy of Elliott Erwitt / Magnum Photos.