Elliot Erwitt's Kolor

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

The legendary black & white photographer has published a book of his color work:

http://www.teneues.com/shop-us/elliott-erwitts-kolor.html

From the site:

To select the color photographs for this vast project that have never been published in a book before, Elliott Erwitt sifted through his ample archive of nearly half a million 35mm slides. Then he began the mammoth task of whittling it down to this epic collection of roughly 450 pages. For most of these images, the color managed to stay miraculously preserved and every evocative detail is as crisp as the date of its creation. Whether world leaders or sassy showgirls, the subjects reflect Erwitt’s own wry and eclectic sensibility. To say the juxtapositions are intriguing would be an understatement. From marketplaces to military camps, Vegas to Venice, there’s a rich mixture of public pageantry and carefully observed private interactions.

[RSL]

Thanks Slobodan. I think I just found my birthday present.

[bill t.]

A google search on "Elliot Erwitt" in Image mode is a real treat!  Let there be no doubt that you get to be a good photographer by taking lots of pictures.

[Rob C]

A google search on "Elliot Erwitt" in Image mode is a real treat!  Let there be no doubt that you get to be a good photographer by taking lots of pictures.

Don't be absurd!

Everybody knows you do it by going on a workshop and then writing critiques about other snapper's work without ever again having to lift a camera from off the shelf!

I thought that was common knowledge; you disappoint me, Bill.

;-)

Rob C

[bill t.]

Everybody knows you do it by going on a workshop and then writing critiques about other snapper's work without ever again having to lift a camera from off the shelf!

Rob, that was just a ruse to chase all these damned photographers out the door so I can put together the fliers for my "Amazing Arches,"  "Sensational Slot Canyons," and "Wonderful Wave" workshops this summer.  There are a very limited number of places still available but you must act quickly.

[Rob C]

Rob, that was just a ruse to chase all these damned photographers out the door so I can put together the fliers for my "Amazing Arches,"  "Sensational Slot Canyons," and "Wonderful Wave" workshops this summer.  There are a very limited number of places still available but you must act quickly.

Cunning!

But it doesn't explain why Erwitt spelled it Kolor. Do you think it might be a Russo-Hungarian term?

Puzzled, (Puerto Pollensa)

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... But it doesn't explain why Erwitt spelled it Kolor...

In his own words:

   "The color is spelled with a “K” as a tribute to Kodak, which why the cover is yellow — also a tribute to Kodak. Kodak, our good old friend, rest in peace."

The above quote is from an interview about the book, published in The New York Times' Lens blog.

Two of my favorite quotes from the interview:

   "Black and white is a reduction of things. Color is an illustration of things simply put."

   ‘Color’ he says, ‘is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive.’”

[Rob C]

"No, this was early times. This must have been the early ’50s as well; things were simpler then. There was not the use of focus groups."


That's a beautiful statement, saying so much with so little.

Thanks for the link, Slobodan.

;-)

Rob C

[langier]

The law of averages here... get a monkey to shoot enough and his photo, too, can make the cover of National Geo!;-)

No, Elliott Erwitt isn't a monkey...he can probably outshoot most all us using a pin-hole oatmeal box and a single sheet of film, IMO! This book seems like the culmination of a lifetime of excellence from a master of the craft.