
Hannah Shapiro
Cataloguer & Sale Coordinator
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US$2,000 - US$3,000
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Cataloguer & Sale Coordinator

Specialist, Head of Sale

Head of Department
Provenance
The photographer to Richard Coplan, circa 2012
Literature
Sean Callahan, Masters of Contemporary Photography, Elliott Erwitt, The Private Experience: Personal Insights of a Professional Photographer (Los Angeles, 1974), p. 26
Elliott Erwitt, Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best (Kempen, 2009), p. 60
Exhibited
Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best, Personal Choice, Chanel Nexus Hall, Toyko, 6 April - May 6 2007
Elliott Erwitt: Photographs from the Collection of Richard Coplan and Martin R. Mallinger, Boca Raton Museum of Art, 9 November 2014 - 11 January 2015
The Art of Observation: The Best of Photographer Elliott Erwitt, D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts / Springfield Museums, 9 November 2019 - 12 January 2020; Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, 17 September - 31 December 2022
Note
Elliott Erwitt took this image for his first major story for a national magazine after Robert Capa secured an assignment on children around the world for the Magnum team. Erwitt was sent to cover the Western Plains of America. Although the series was never published, it allowed Erwitt to make some of his most distinctive, early images. He rented a car to drive through Colorado and Wyoming, where he found the boy in the plaid shirt at a ranch. Erwitt recounted, "In those days things were a lot less complicated. You could walk up to someone and ask them if you could make their picture. I spotted this kid, liked his looks, and hung around with him for a few days." (The Private Experience, p. 27).
Erwitt also spent time with the boy's family. His mother had left him, so he was in the care of his grandparents. His father worked on another ranch and came to visit him each Sunday (see Lot 19).