Eminent Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt was the Chief Judge for the Fresh M.I.L.K. photographic competition.

About Elliott Erwitt

“Making people laugh is one of the highest achievements you can have” says Elliott Erwitt in the introduction to his book Personal Exposures.

Elliott Erwitt has been taking photographs for more than 50 years, and wry, existential and cleverly observed humour is a hallmark of his work.

Born in Paris in 1928 to Russian parents, Erwitt spent his childhood in Milan, then emigrated to the US, via France, with his family in 1939. There he studied at the Los Angeles City College and New York's New School for Social Research. In 1951 he was drafted for military service and undertook various photographic duties while serving in a unit of the Army Signal Corps in Germany and France. It was during this time that Elliott’s photographs came to the notice of the influential Robert Capa. A war photographer of distinction, Capa was one of the founders of the now legendary Magnum Photos, a cooperative of photojournalists. He promised Erwitt a job with Magnum when he got out of the army. In 1953, Erwitt took up Capa’s offer and his professional career began, having already won a prestigious photography contest run by Life magazine.

Elliott Erwitt’s photographic “pedigree” (he is famous for his photos of dogs, as well as people) is long and punctuated frequently with critical and public acclaim. Altogether, there have been more than a dozen books of his work, several dozen important exhibitions, and a distinguished handful of documentary films.

Among his books are Dog Dogs (1998), Between the Sexes (1994), To the Dogs (1992), On the Beach (1991), Personal Exposures (1988), The Angel Tree (1984), Recent Developments (1978), Son of Bitch (with text by P.G. Wodehouse, 1974), and Photographs and Anti-Photographs (with text by Sam Holmes and John Szarkowski, 1972), and more recently Snaps (2003) and Personal Best (2006). In addition, he has contributed work to many other celebrated texts.

In the late 1960s Erwitt served as Magnum’s president for three years. He then turned to film: in the 1970s he produced several noted documentaries and in the 1980s eighteen comedy films for Home Box Office.