It’s almost embarrassing, but I do have one trick for taking portraits on commission. I carry one of these little bicycle horns in my pocket, and once in a while, when someone is sour-faced or stiff, I blow my horn. It sort of shatters the barriers. It’s silly, but it works. Elliott Erwitt Read Quote
Now very often events are set up for photographers… The weddings are orchestrated about the photographers taking the picture, because if it hasn’t been photographed it doesn’t really exist. Elliott Erwitt Read Quote
In those simpler days, you could just take pictures of movie stars and show them the way they were, as normal human beings. And if I felt part of any movement at the time, it was just to do that – to be journalistic and photograph what is, rather than what is made up. Elliott Erwitt Read Quote
I’m not a serious photographer like many of my contemporaries. That is to say, I am serious about not being serious. Elliott Erwitt Read Quote
Making books is a very specific kind of activity. It’s not really a collection of your best pictures – although it is – but it’s also a way of presenting your work so that it’s not repetitive, so that it flows, and so that it makes sense in a book. Elliott Erwitt Read Quote
Somehow Photoshop and the ease with which one can produce an image has degraded the quality of photography in general. Elliott Erwitt Read Quote
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. Elliott Erwitt Read Quote
I don’t really have a favorite camera. I use a Leica and Canon a lot. It depends, especially professionally, on the requirements. But my carry-around camera is a Leica. Elliott Erwitt Read Quote
The most awful museums are in China. They have magnificent stuff on display and just the worst way of displaying it. They just don’t spend money on lighting and installation. Elliott Erwitt Read Quote
The ratio of successful shots is one in God-knows-how-many. Sometimes you’ll get several in one contact sheet, and sometimes it’s none for days. But as long as you go on taking pictures, you’re likely to get a good one at some point. Elliott Erwitt Read Quote
