Between the Sexes

Rating:
Summary: Five decades of great photography
Review: Elliott Erwitt was born in 1928, and during his long and productive career he has proven to be a deeply humanistic photographer who is playful and flirtatious and interested in what makes the ordinary worth our attention, quirky or lovable - and therefore, worth remembering.

Despite the misleading Editorial implication that this book somehow addresses the "battle of the sexes," in fact it does no such thing. These are candid (though not unplanned) shots of men and women, men together, women together, kids together, smiling threesomes, lovers kissing, carnival scenes, nudists, swimmers, sea lions, dogs, horses, trees and plants, a Raggedy Ann and Andy, monkeys in the zoo - and even two old cars, one dark, one light (taken in 1950) that somehow all make sense. The pictures are lively, vivid, and satisfying in black and white.

While some of his subjects (children, dogs, nudists, lovers) might provoke easy sentimentality or, in other cases, voyeurism elsewhere, under Erwitt's gaze, people and animals retain dignity and depth and, often, a sense of humor. He often photographs people or animals in the act of looking at something or someone else: there is rarely just one thing happening in an Erwitt photo, no matter how simple and straightforward the shot. In addition, his subjects are wrapped up in what they are doing, and it's great fun to watch them at their lives. Erwitt contributes a thoughtful and personal introduction that is part autobiography, part artist's notes, and part theory. This is a great collection, happy but never maudlin, that is fun, interesting, and a useful and patient teacher of the art and craft of photography.

Rating:
Summary: Very mixed bag
Review: It's a pity - some photos in this book are incredible. They're evocative, and they tell a story... a different story with each viewer, perhaps. They capture a moment or a mood perfectly. However, there are also run-of-the-mill pictures in it, and some are just boring. All in all, it might be worth buying the book just for the good pictures, especially if you've seen them in a review for example - but don't be too disappointed by the others.