Entitled Elliott Erwitt: Retrospective, the display brings together nearly 130 photos, which organisers say are "a combination of wit, absurdity and elegance" and highlight "the beauty of ordinary moments that tend to escape us under the burden of everyday life."
Exhibition co-curator Katarzyna Puchalska described Erwitt as "a versatile artist who recorded everyday life, important moments in history, ordinary people, show-business celebrities and political figures, as well as dogs, in his pictures."
She added that "his photography is a remarkable record of time and places—a unique, beautiful historical source, thought-provoking and pleasing at the same time."
Born in Paris into a family of Russian émigrés, Erwitt spent his childhood in Italy. A decade later, his family returned to France before moving to the United States immediately ahead of the outbreak of World War II.
He took up photography at an early age. Over a seven-decade career, he travelled across the United States, Europe, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, Japan and Pakistan, recording the daily lives of ordinary and extraordinary people and documenting both fleeting and historic moments.
Erwitt worked on numerous film sets, including On the Waterfront (1954) and The Misfits (1961), the last film completed by Marilyn Monroe.
Photos: PAP/Rafał Guz
He also photographed US President John F. Kennedy at the White House, as well as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in Cuba. His subjects also included Humphrey Bogart, Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich, Jack Kerouac, Arthur Miller and Andy Warhol.
Erwitt visited Poland several times. In 1959, he came for US Vice President Richard Nixon’s visit.
Five years later, he took pictures in Warsaw, as well as the southern cities of Kraków and Częstochowa, and the coastal city of Gdańsk, on assignment for Time magazine.
In 2005, he attended the opening of his exhibition at a Warsaw gallery.
The exhibition at Warsaw’s History Meeting House runs until September 20.
(mk/gs)
Source: History Meeting House/dsh.waw.pl