Elliott Erwitt

[peopleofdetroit]

If you are doing reportage or photojournalism, then the photograph should be presented as much as possible as the camera saw it. Outside of that, the only thing that really matters is the final result and the impact that final result has on the viewer. If you use Photoshop, or a view camera, or a gradient filter, so be it.

[goodtimes616]

Awesome! Manipulated pictures are like a woman with too much makeup and plastic surgery ...it's compensating, it's the type of picture that attracts the eye temporarily but you quickly forget. I am convinced without a doubt that we should aim at taking pictures that do NOT need ANY manipulation except for a very slight curves adjustment or burn MAYBE. These ones are memorable...if you are good enough to take them that is.

[wildlite]

Bicycle Horn. What's the keyboard shortcut for that?

[wildlite]

Pah - All your photos are manipulated by you you old bitter bastard. Set up, manipuated by lens, crop,etc then printed heavily. Go shut up and stop being bitter. What your saying is disrespectful for those who use the medium in their own true sense.

[baxcarias78]

@wildlite Oh fuck off

[peopleofdetroit]

@wildlite LOL, I dont like the way you said it, but what you said is true.

As the same time, I understand what's he's saying. he's saying, when you are doing reportage photography, you want to present the photo as the camera saw it.

[hollysaj]

If the color temperature of a photograph needs adjusting- Photoshop can bring the image back to what it looked like to the eye. That is manipulation of the image, but it is creating what was really there.

[hollysaj]

If the color temperature of a photograph needs adjusting- Photoshop can bring the image back to what it looked like to the eye. That is manipulation of the image, but it is creating what was really there.

[jgda9rs]

this makes me feel so guilty specially i got a good grade in a photoshop course i've taken recently

[damonwebster]

@jgda9rs The good grade is a great thing. He still acknowledges the uses of digital photography. At the end of the day, it's the image, no matter how you got there.

[topdeckdog]

So he blows bicycle horns to make people turn around. He barks at dogs to get a reaction in order to set up a shot, but photography is about "what is" and not what you conjure up? hmm ok... looks like he exploits all of the tools that that he has the ability to operate in his tool box. Underexposing for a moody scene, slower shutter speed to accentuate motion, dark room tricks etc. So should he slap a 'MANIPULATED IMAGE' disclaimer on his work? Sounds a little contradictory if you ask me.

[1MinDLesS1]

@topdeckdog there are dark room techniques where you require no manipulations, just a correctly shot negative.

[mussfrombruss]

Very good advice at the end though...

[mussfrombruss]

No I don't agree. Photography can be 'what it is' but it can also be 'What it could be'

The only people that usually have a problem with that are old peeps with romantic ideals.

[JOSUE5401]

@mussfrombruss no your wrong! photography is reality, not art!

[donttrustany1]

@JOSUE5401 No YOU'RE wrong. Photography is without doubt art.

Reality is reality. Photography as painting(for an example) is a representation of reality.

Get lost idiot.

[JOSUE5401]

@donttrustany1 Exacly, reality is reality and all a camera does is capture it. You only say its art because humans have emotions and a photography can spark emotion but still its reality! Get found looser becasue your'e definitley lost!!

[yenbigtrebor]

@JOSUE5401

*loser

[KnightsbridgeAce]

Strong viewpoints

[Walcor87]

The comments on this video are the worst crap I've ever seen. "It's too easy to capture pictures digitally?" Jesus... Since when was photography about making it harder for ourselves? Isn't it all about the product? "Digital photographers only shoot what's not interesting and Canon and Nikon competing for the fastets camera"? The speed of the camera are mostly for nature photography. Shooting pictures of birds and so on.

Whats the matter with people? Seems like the most of you have issues.

[ohnoithinkihateyou]

i really do think someone should come up with a name for 'manipulated images'.

it's still art but if you do 90% of your work on photoshop, i wouldn't call it photography anymore.

we should call it by a different name.

[troyasee]

@ohnoithinkihateyou photography based digital imagery

[JOSUE5401]

finaly someone with a brain! you will be a good photographer with that attitude.I think the same way.Every photograph that has been manipulated should be marked as digital art,not be called a photograph.I was telling my friend that we should get a pettition going to get people who manipulate images to change there proffesion names to artists,not photographers,

[ohnoithinkihateyou]

@JOSUE5401 that's an excellent idea. i'd sign that petition for sure!

[ohnoithinkihateyou]

bw films have always been there. the images are still the same but in different colour.

however, if you take one crap picture and manipulate it using photoshop and makes it look 10 x better, i wouldn't call that an honest work anymore.

like what he said, it's fine if you want to manipulate your images but you should let people know that it's a manipulated image. i think it's only fair.

i do believe manipulated images are still art. it's just different to photography in my opinion.

[ghb624]

For that matter, you can't work in b&w photography and say you don't "manipulate." The eye doesn't see in b&w, so when you snap the shutter with a film camera loaded with b&w, you've "manipulated" right there.

He makes valid points, of course, but it's all a matter of degree, not one of being absolutely "real" vs absolutely "imaginary."

[Littlewindovers]

He is a master. I assume he is not talking about the day to day dodging and burning that will no doubt be used by the printers on his own work. Dodging and Burning and chemical and paper use "manipulate the image". For me manipulation is changing the subject.

[babybamse]

I mean more like the way that one can use filters to enhance colors, but used on a black and white film. But also doing dodging and burning with shading light off when exposing. But when I say scanning negatives is manipulation then I mean the light that you record isn't necessarily the same as you would see with your own eyes!

Sure Erwitt has done some great stuff - but techniques that are used in the dark room are just applied in a slightly different way with software and digital photography..

[Paranoidish]

I'd have asked him,when does the manipulation start?in lab and lately with scanning negatives thaz manipulation as well,innit?

[babybamse]

Of course scanning negatives is manipulation - in fact just taking a photo is manipulating reality! However, in my opinion digital photography and editing is graphical designing, that's a form of art just as well as photography Though I clearly understand some of Mr. Erwitt's points I do certainly not perceive post editing as unacceptable - it's art, and when doing art one must break the rules to create something new..!

[johnolin]

I don't think scanning a negative is manipulation, the image remains the same. Taking a photograph i also believe is not manipulation because all you're doing simply is recording light and dark, reality remains the same. Now you can say manipulating is art but it's not necessary good art. Just like when ready made art came out, yeah it's art, but crappy art.

[Raviff75]

In the Moma there is now a photogrpahy exhibit that clearly states that with todays digital printers, the quality on film printing is achieved. This in not a question of oil paint vs. acrylic paint , the overcoming of digital vs. film is something else. Ask Leica and Hasselblad.

[Raviff75]

It sounds that there are a lot of traditionalist in this forum.

(Picasso was a visual genius but that doesn't mean that he behaved intelligently towards women.) One thing is to praise the medium that you master (film) and another is to speak with ignorance or disrespect about another medium (digital). There is no secret that digital is displacing film, ask any photographer. DIshwashing machines from the 50's had their advantages but todays dishwasher machines are better.

[grubriella]

You're probably right. I don't doubt both of your posts. And film is probably going to be replaced by digital.

But in my eyes, a b&w fiber print from a b&w negative is much more beautiful than any digital b&w prints I have seen in. It is also quite rewarding to make wet prints. For me anyway.

As for colour, I like both and I use both.

[jmu03182]

I've just been chosen as a winner the new fresh milk photos competition that elliot is judging. This guy kows talent lol

[Laureen73]

his photos of dogs are funny if you are into that kind of stuff, but this man talking doesn't sound very bright. Is he aware of the stupid statements he is saying concerning reality and photography? They are completely ignorant of photographic theory of the last 35 years!

[wasnice]

I cannot believe this... Not very bright? stupid statements? how can you be so pretentious and stupid? How can you judge so lightly one of the best photographers of all history? I am sure you have plenty of pictures better than his... This is how the world is going nowadays... Crap!

[fvgotch]

Eliiot Erwitt isn't so bright? You sound like a highschool teenager yelling at a old and tired grandfather who just retired from 50 years as a general in the military. Typical ignorant and egoestical fool you are~~

[Strevo]

You're an fecking idiot

[roblarosa]

I wonder how he defines "manipulating" an image? When I used to process my own negatives I would use different chemicals, or different mixes or timings to manipulate my negs. When I made my own prints I'd spend hours in the dark room dodging, burning, using all kinds of contrast filters etc. to manipulate my prints. Shooting digital lets me do in minutes what used to take hours. Back in the old days, there were those who thought color photography wasn't art, but B&W was. Stay with the times!

[LeonardNeumann]

You are telling one of the great photographers of all times to stay with the times. What he is talking about is not about dodging and burning or using different chemicals, but removing or adding things to the photographs that were not there to begin with.

[johnolin]

Thank you.

[castelao66]

{"the basic quality of photography is that it should be believable..." He is right.}

That is exactly the problem with photography and the non-alert viewer... That is for example how with photography the news media manipulates the truth, misleading us to believe what someone wants us to believe.

An incredible device for the artist, but a dangerous device for the people in power.

[sgs5000]

"the basic quality of photography is that it should be believable..."

He is right.

[castelao66]

old time photographers are so afraid of digital photography.

Why the aversion?

What are they afraid of? That more people are able to take photographs?

Daido Moriyama, an incredible photographer that became famous with his b & w film photos, now alternately works with digital and says something very intelligent about it. Photography is the act of photographing, is not the alchemy or the process, photography is the image. Man Ray manipulated the process...does that make his photographs less real?

[delphine2310]

"old time photographers" are not afraid of digital photography. That's not the point.

They master a certain technique and they keep using it. Elliott Erwitt always used for his commercial/assignment work new technology, but for his hobby he has always been using his faithful camera. Bottom line.

[babybamse]

It is indeed true that the "old" analog folk are affraid of digital photography - it's really strange! People always become sceptic when new technology and tools are invented... More people are able to take average photographs easily, however, it's still as challenging as before creating a new image - think about composition, telling a story with some images etc. The challenge of photography isn't tech or a camera, but instead being creative and seeing things in new ways through a camera!

[rocker509]

Elliott knows what's up.

[lagook]

i heart him so much

[wutsoevanevamind]

Elliott Erwitt is one of the most respectful photographer for me. Plus, I agree with him that digital image is never going to stay beyond film photography because the film is the most closest productions that keep the most truth for humanity. Plus, the digital photographer always shooting things without concern. So, I found that it was ridiculous that Canon, or Nikon is trying to make fastest camera in the world to let people snapping shooting all the none concern images?

[hesayyoubraderunnah]

Honestly, Elliott Erwitt has a weird aversion to digital photography. It's okay for him to digitally scan his negs and "manipulate" them for print on Photoshop for the publication of one his books yet capturing the image digitally is wrong. I'm surprised that a photographer of his stature would actually believe that film is more adept capturing reality in the first place. Last time I checked I saw in color, not black & white.

[EzStYlEzZz]

its too easy to capture pictures digital...

try by yourself to make good pictures with an analog camera and then with a digital...

you will see the difference

[rangefinderrick1]

A camera is a camera is a camera....

I shoot the same way now that I have digital, as I did for 30 years using film.

There is no difference in the final result.

[jrwel14]

I saw a collection of the best photographs of all time. They were ALL black & White!

[theweyrd]

.. and there is no color film or what? geez..

[babybamse]

You're so right! Analog photograpy is just as manipulative, and anything else one could say in this context, as digital photography... Digital isn't too easy or anything - the basics are the same for both analog and digital - but you have to know your camera to capture good photos - sure dslr etc. have full auto but that mode is just crap! - Eg. a dslr will calculate an exposure while taking all the pixels into account and thus exposing a black background grey - think about concert photography!

[bwworld]

Excellent interview! Thanks for posting this "face time" with one of my heroes!