A good photographer that interested me was Elliot Erwitt. Erwit was born in Paris in 1928 to Russian parents, he emigrated to the US with his family in 1948, and he developed his interest in photography living his teenage years in Hollywood. He started by working in a commercial darkroom and later experimented with photography at Los Angeles City College. In 1951, he was drafted for military service, he undertook photographic duties in the Army Signal Corps in German and France. In 1953, he joined Magnum Photos, where he worked as a freelance photographer. He is known for his leading figure in advertising and documentary photography. He is famous for his funny and ironic images that are uncommonly images found in common places. Erwitt won the Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal in 2002 and the International Center for Photography’s Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2011.

I choose this photographer because I really like their photos, I thought their photos were really interesting and unique. Their style of photography is documentary, they most like take pictures of the world but Erwitt likes to make it interesting and sometimes funny. The photography style that I like to do the most is documentary, it is the most similar to my style of photography so I felt that his photos were the most interesting. I also liked that his photos were funny and ironic at times.

The image I choose is a funny and interesting photo. The photo shows a bulldog sitting in a man’s lap but is photographed in a way to make it seem that the bulldog’s face is the face of the human. They are seated on the steps of New York with another bulldog sitting next to them. This photo is interesting because when you look at it at first glance you think that the man has a bulldog for a head. I can relate to the photo because it shows a person taking their dog out but Erwitt was able to capture something so normal and boring in an interesting way. I think Erwitt is trying to show joy and get a laugh out of people by showing normal daily tasks. The image is asymmetrical, there is no symmetry in the photo. The elements being used in the image can be the use of a frame, there is a rectangular frame created behind the man with the bulldog with the door entrance. Another element present can be the use of lines, the floor tiles lead into the man showing that they are the main subject. Another element used was a form of repetition, the floor tiles were repeated.