Born in Paris in 1928 to Russian parents, Elliott Erwitt spent his childhood in Milan before emigrating to the US with his family via France. As a teenager living in Hollywood, he worked in a commercial darkroom where he developed a keen interest in photography. In 1948, he moved to New York and exchanged janitorial work for film classes at the New School for Social Research. Just five years later, Erwitt joined Magnum Photos and began work as a freelance photographer for Collier’s, Look, LIFE, Holiday and other luminaries of that golden period for illustrated magazines. He has made significant bodies of work in America, Cuba, the UK, France, Italy and beyond. Erwitt’s images have become known for benevolent irony and a humanistic sensibility traditional to the spirit of Magnum.