Elliott Erwitt’s Paris

“If we know an Erwitt scene instantly,” writes Adam Gopnik in the foreword to a book of Elliot Erwitt’s Paris pictures, published in a small-format edition by teNeues, “it is because, in plain English, it will seem so funny, and feels so detached—we laugh, and we are never asked to swoon too easily.” Erwitt, who is now 92, was born in Paris but raised in the U.S. Throughout his career as a Magnum photographer (Robert Capa invited him to join Magnum Photos in 1953) Erwitt traveled to Paris, chronicling the goings-on of the city in images that combine the wonder of a visitor with the cunning and wit of a local. The glistening water of the Louvre’s Fountain of the Nymphs, a children’s merry-go-round in mid-spin, the flickering lights of the Champs-Élysées at night: even lifelong Parisians will admit to being swept off their feet from time to time. Yet Erwitt never exaggerates the magic. Rather, he presents beauty alongside grime, romance and jokes in the same shot. “Erwitt’s vision of Paris is in some ways anti-romantic,” writes Gopnik, “designed to let the air out of a few overblown balloons,” and look good doing it. —Julia Vitale