Elliot Erwitt retrospective at the Musée Maillol

From March 23 to August 15.

"The exhibition Elliott Erwitt. A rétrospective pays tribute to one of the most important photographers of the 20th century, a member of Magnum Photos since 1954. The exhibition presents his work through a collection of 215 black and white and color photographs."



Not that I'd want to be in Paris these days, even though there is some pretty dramatic street photography to be done there with all the turmoil, but I'd love to see the show nevertheless.

Anybody in the neighborhood?

Yep, I just saw the ad for this on a bus yesterday and I gasped!
I'm not brave enough to go shoot the protests, but I have been documenting the piles of trash and I'll make it to Maillol next week. Can't wait!

Daniela said:

'm not brave enough to go shoot the protests, but I have been documenting the piles of trash and I'll make it to Maillol next week. Can't wait!

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Ma jalousie est profonde et entière .

Alex Benjamin said:

Ma jalousie est profonde et entière .

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Je comprends... les tas d'ordures sont des sujets de photo si agréables !
Speaking of which, this guy is having fun with the trash.

Daniela said:

Speaking of which, this guy is having fun with the trash.

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That's great!

So, I went to see the exhibition today and I left with a bit of disappointment.
With the ridiculous entrance fee (as much as the Louvre), you get an audio guide with a lady speaking about Erwitt's work as a fan girl speaking about the latest boyband Really, it's cringe-worthy. It adds nothing but a bit of information, and the ending phrase is always something to the effect of "he's so funny/witty/etc".
The exhibition is presented in themes and there are dog footprints guiding the way. And when I got to the dog pictures area, I encountered a crowd taking cell/tablet pictures of the prints, which I find...frustrating (to be polite).
I saw new-to-me candid work (I don't care about the commercial stuff) and some of his color photographs were interesting, so there's that. At the end, there's a space where his NY studio is recreated, with a Leica, a Rolleiflex and contact sheets. There's a video playing of him saying "showing your contact prints can be a dangerous thing"...and it can indeed
Overall, the exhibition is presented in a lighthearted way to represent Erwitt's approach to photography, but it doesn't seem genuine to me; there's something artificial and cheap-looking about it. I hope someone else gets to see it and share their opinion!

Thanks for the report, Daniela. I'm not that much of an Erwitt fan, so now I don't feel I'm missing something by not seeing it, but still, really too bad that they couldn't give more depth or meaning to his work. It's pretty much the tragedy of Erwitt's legacy, that he'll essentially be associated only with light-hearted, humorous coffee-table books about dogs.

Part of the problem here is the fact that this museum doesn't seem to have a true photography department or curator. This one was actually "curated", or rather, put together, by a collective called Tempora, which seems to specialize in large-scale, popular exhibits, from Johnny Halliday to "Pompeii The Immortal City" to "The World of Steve McCurry" —

Interesting find about the organizer! It makes sense, the museum is there to safeguard and share the work of Maillol, a painter and sculptor.
Oh, well, next stop: Fondation HCB to see a Paul Strand exhibition as well as HCB's mexican pictures

Daniela said:

Interesting find about the organizer! It makes sense, the museum is there to safeguard and share the work of Maillol, a painter and sculptor.
Oh, well, next stop: Fondation HCB to see a Paul Strand exhibition as well as HCB's mexican pictures

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The Fondation HCB is a great venue. I visited there this past summer with my Italian photographer friend Alberto Bregani.

GregY said:

The Fondation HCB is a great venue. I visited there this past summer with my Italian photographer friend Alberto Bregani.

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It is! Too bad they don't have a permanent exhibit of HCB's and Martine's work (that was apparently their request), so sometimes we have to wait for his work to be displayed.

Daniela said:

Interesting find about the organizer! It makes sense, the museum is there to safeguard and share the work of Maillol, a painter and sculptor.
Oh, well, next stop: Fondation HCB to see a Paul Strand exhibition as well as HCB's mexican pictures

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Would love to see Strand's original prints ! There hasn't been any recent books about Strand, and I feel the printing in all the older one's I've seen don't do justice to his work.

A few years back when I was in Paris I went to the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. Can't remember exactly what I saw — lots of great photographs by photographers I hadn't heard about, I think Van der Keuken was one of them —, but I loved the way it was set up, and loved the place.

Daniela said:

Interesting find about the organizer! It makes sense, the museum is there to safeguard and share the work of Maillol, a painter and sculptor.
Oh, well, next stop: Fondation HCB to see a Paul Strand exhibition as well as HCB's mexican pictures

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I hope they have a good selection of Strand prints for you! They're wonderful. Back in '15 the Philadelphia Museum of Art put on a retrospective to celebrate the acquisition of thousands of his prints and it was a jaw dropper. That's my hand in the pic offering some scale.

warden said:

Back in '15 the Philadelphia Museum of Art put on a retrospective to celebrate the acquisition of thousands of his prints and it was a jaw dropper.

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I wish I could have seen that. I dragged my feet and missed buying the book when it was easily available too. I had heard some negative things about the printing quality and that put me off. Of course now that it's OOP, I've decided I need a copy and have been trying to track one down

Alex Benjamin said:

It's pretty much the tragedy of Erwitt's legacy, that he'll essentially be associated only with light-hearted, humorous coffee-table books about dogs.

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I don't think it's quite that bad, he's released several books that contain more 'serious' photography. 'Home Around the World' and 'Pittsburgh 1950' are two examples that are quite good and worth checking out.

Alex Benjamin said:

There hasn't been any recent books about Strand, and I feel the printing in all the older one's I've seen don't do justice to his work.

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Have a look at 'Southwest' published by Aperture in 2005. Really nicely printed IMHO.

'Paul Strand at Work: Toward a Deeper Understanding' by Steidl/Aperture is another beautifully printed book, although small at 72 pages.

logan2z said:

Have a look at 'Southwest' published by Aperture in 2005. Really nicely printed IMHO.

'Paul Strand at Work: Toward a Deeper Understanding' by Steidl/Aperture is another beautifully printed book, although small at 72 pages.

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Thanks for this.

Alex Benjamin said:

A few years back when I was in Paris I went to the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. Can't remember exactly what I saw — lots of great photographs by photographers I hadn't heard about, I think Van der Keuken was one of them —, but I loved the way it was set up, and loved the place.

La MEP

Jusqu'au 15 janvier 2023 : Boris Mikhaïlov - Journal ukrainien (Galeries), Antony Cairns - PXL CTY (Studio).

www.mep-fr.org

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Oh, yes, that's another great place!

warden said:

I hope they have a good selection of Strand prints for you! They're wonderful. Back in '15 the Philadelphia Museum of Art put on a retrospective to celebrate the acquisition of thousands of his prints and it was a jaw dropper. That's my hand in the pic offering some scale.View attachment 335131View attachment 335132

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Thanks for sharing pictures. Can't wait to see it!