Life numero tres

And finally the last part - this time O'Mahony touches upon Erwitt's photojournalistic and directing work and all that have happened since the glamorous 60's . So here it is:

By now, he was beginning to display a flair for photojournalism, and took the photo of Jacqueline Kennedy at the JFK funeral, where her tortured face can be seen through the veil. Erwitt also built up a long-running relationship with several organisations, including the Irish Tourist Board, for whom he took many of the photographs that defined the Irish image abroad: winding Connemara roads, stone-ringed fields on the Aran Islands, and rugged shorelines.

He was in Tel Aviv in 1962, where he photographed Martin Buber; Hungary in 1964, where he photographed geese and girls in traditional dress; Poland in 1964; Cuba in 1964, where his subjects included Che Guevara; back in the US in 1965, for Lyndon B Johnson; Italy in 1965 for Antonioni and Pope Paul VI. In 1968, he paid a visit to nudists in Kent, which would become something of a preoccupation throughout the 70s and feature in his films during the 80s. In 1968 he went back to Moscow, and then on to France and the Ile du Levant, this time for French nudists, back to Ireland and then on to Japan in 1970, where he took some of the last pictures of the writer Yukio Mishima.

Throughout this period, Erwitt's personal life was continuing to go through a cycle of painful revolutions. The relationship with Lucienne had long since broken down and they divorced in 1960. Three years later he met Diana Dann, whom he married in 1968 only to break with her by the mid-70s. On another assignment for a business magazine in San Francisco, he encountered a young Texan named Susan Ringo and married her in 1977. The relationship ended acrimoniously in the mid-80s.

During this turmoil, his career continued to blossom and in the 70s and 80s it took another turn as he went from still to moving images: "He called me up and said he had this commission to do a series of funny television documentaries," says Sayle. "First, a pilot to be called The Great Pleasure Hunt - the idea was that the central figure would wander around the world searching for pleasure. We went to an auberge in the Shihimoda peninsula where we knew there was a bathtub of solid gold that was worth $2 million. We just arrived and made up the piece on the spot."

This was the beginning of a series of programmes for HBO, which would eventually include absurdist narratives about playing polo on elephants in Nepal, a black-tie safari in Africa and a film about hunting truffles in France. Others included Beauty Knows No Pain (1971), Red, White and Bluegrass (1973) and the prize-winning Glassmakers of Herat, Afghanistan (1977).

In the 1990s, Erwitt returned full-time to stills photography. At the age of 75, he has perhaps achieved most of what he set out to do when he left California in 1949. Even if there are hidden ambitions, characteristically he isn't divulging much: "All I want really is more of the same," he says, "I'd like to do more exhibits and books. And I'd like to get more advertising work. I have very expensive overheads and alimony payments. Of course I could sell up, but I really would like to keep it all going as long as I'm perpendicular. I'm not complaining. The simple fact of keeping going is a lot of fun most of the time."

Few images that were mentioned: 

Martin Buber

 Tel Aviv, 1962.

Jacqueline Kennedy
Arlington 1963.

Che Gueavara

Havana, 1964.

Appreciation of life and living to the limit are two messages that I picked up from the article, and that was another reason why I wanted to share it regardless its length. This detailed biographical sketch not only contains almost everything that Elliott Erwitt has done, but also icludes some personal comments made by the 'subject' himself, which undeniably make it more interesting and insightful than just listing the events one after another. Or at least that is how I felt...

Thank You for reading if You got to this point, and I hope it was as enjoyable and informative for You as it was for me.




[ Article excerpt from The Guardian ]