Elliott Erwitt: Photographer makes career of pooches and famous people

Elliott Erwitt has spent most of his life living out of a suitcase. He was born in Paris, grew up in Italy and, since 1957, has been a peripatetic, New York-based shooter for the prestigious Magnum photo agency, a gig that has frequently positioned him on the sidelines of history.

New York, 1954: He snaps Marilyn Monroe on the set of “The Seven Year Itch,” her skirt dancing in the breeze of a subway grate.

Moscow, 1959: He records Nixon angrily pointing his finger at Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev at the height of the Cold War.

Washington, 1963: He captures Jackie Kennedy at her husband’s burial at Arlington National Cemetery, looking devastated under a black veil, clutching a folded American flag to her breast.

Welcoming a visitor to his room at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead on a recent day, the 82-year-old master street photographer sits behind a desk, issuing joke-y one-liners. He’s as winking and cryptic as his photographs: fashionably dressed pedestrian chihuahuas; absurd half-male, half-swan ballet dancers in tutus, sneaking cigarettes by the bar at what looks like intermission; children striking adult poses in ballroom dance clothes. Erwitt was in Atlanta for the opening of “New York, Paris & Rome." His show at Jackson Fine Art in Buckhead features 37 images from the cities he has treated like old lovers over the years. The self-professed computerphobe and famous photographer of pooches pauses only briefly to answer his iPhone as it rings, “Woof, woof, woof!”

Q: You were born in Paris?

A: That's true.

Q: To Russian-Jewish parents?

A: That's true.

Q: So your parents left Russia to escape the Communists?

A: I don't know if they were scared. But they left in 1917. That was the right time to leave. My boyhood was in Italy. I happened to have been born in Paris, but I left when I was 2 months old. I don't remember much. ... I immigrated (to the States) at age 11. We went to New York just as the war started -- 1939 -- and after a year or so moved to Los Angeles, Hollywood to be precise. ... My father skipped town because of alimony problems. I inherited the house at 16.

Q: When did you start taking photographs?

A: I bought an old 4-by-5 view camera and started putzing around.

Q: You sold pictures then?

A: No, no, no. I was 14 to 15. I started my professional career, you might say, at age 16½ because I was on my own then. I had to do something. I was still in college. I did sort of odd jobs, taking pictures of school events and neighbors' children, that sort of thing.

Q: Do you remember the first picture you sold?

A: I remember the first picture I sold in New York, yeah, to Harper's Bazaar.

Q: Did you study art?

A: I took some courses at Los Angeles City College. I never graduated.

Q: As you got interested in photography, did you become aware of its history? You know you kind of are the history of photography now.

A: Well, I don't know about that. But I jumped in.

Q: How did you join Magnum?

A: I came to New York. It must have been 1949. I could not stand Los Angeles. Understandably. New York is the center of the world for media. I tried to see if I could work with somebody, so I met Robert Capa and Edward Steichen and Roy Stryker, showing them my wares, and they all liked me and they were all helpful.

Q: How did dogs become a subject?

A: I just like dogs. I have a lot of pictures of them. You put them together and you get books. I've done about eight books of dogs.

Q: There’s a big Cartier-Bresson show at the High Museum now. Were you friendly?

A: We became good friends during his time at Magnum. He's the gold standard. We, all the people that are interested in street photography or interested in what is rather than what is constructed, owe him everything.

Q: What was he like?

A: He was a real character. Hot and cold. He didn't suffer fools gladly. He didn't like to have his picture taken. He was always extremely kind to me, and we always got along fine. But I know he was a difficult character. But if he liked somebody, he was generous.

Q: Do you still shoot every day?

A: Not every day. Actually, I am a professional photographer more than anything. On the back of that, I take my sort of personal pictures. You've got to make a living. Lately, I have been having a tremendously good run. I have never been busier in my old age here.

Q: You look great.

A: I'm tired! (A storm in New York the night before made his flight to Atlanta difficult.)

Q: Do you think black and white photography, pulling prints by hand, will survive?

A: Not really. It's gone the way of the gooney bird, I think.

Q: What are you working on?

A: I'm working on seven books right now, all at the same time. I'm working on a color book and a book of sequences called "Sequentially Yours." I have a book out of the Christmas trees at the Metropolitan Museum. It's being printed right now. I have a book in the works for a client. It's for McCallan single-malt whiskey. It's going to be fun.

Q: Do you like McCallan?

A: It's terrific!

Q: Did you shoot the civil rights movement in the South?

A: I shot in the South, not so much during the civil rights era. I have some iconic pictures, the one that says "colored and white."

Q: What was it like to shoot Marilyn Monroe?