In the grand tradition of 20th-century photography, there are many great men and women. But few were as skilled as Elliott Erwitt when it came to capturing the gentle absurdities and poignant paradoxes of the human condition. With a camera almost permanently in hand, Erwitt’s favorite pastime of observing the human comedy became something more purposeful than people-watching. Along with his sense of humor, Erwitt was equipped with a modesty that granted him access to otherwise guarded subjects, stars and civilians alike. With self-effacing frankness, he persuaded everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Che Guevara to lower their guard as he raised his lens. Once, when asked by a reporter from Le Monde how he learned to photograph, he replied, “I read the instructions on the back of the box.” This oversimplifies the matter slightly, but hints at a certain sharpness and elegance that lives within each photo in “Elliott Erwitt: Last Laughs.” The exhibition, which comes from a new book of Erwitt’s work called Last Laughs, is a monument to Erwitt’s beautiful vision and compassionate wit, a tour de force that assembles some of the most indelible images from his vast archive.
