The famous American photojournalist and director, Elliot Erwitt, died at the age of 95. who recorded for six decades details of life in America.

He died “quietly at home, surrounded by his family,” the Magnum agency, of which he had been a member since 1953 and president for three years in the 1960s, said in a statement.

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Born in Paris to Russian parents, Elliot Erwitt moved to the US as a child. He recorded important moments, including the infamous 1959 spat between then US Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. In 2017, on the 100th anniversary of Russia’s October Revolution, he spoke to the BBC about what it was like to see two world leaders at odds during the Cold War. “They were impressive – playing for their audience,” he said of the moment.

Erwitt was known for his black-and-white photographs of city streets, as well as photographs of public figures, including US President John. F. Kennedy, of actresses Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 1960, at the age of 32, he recorded promotional footage for the classic western The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift and Clark Gable.

His humanitarian approach to reporting has given him the opportunity to work for influential American magazines, as well as international publications and tourism organizations.

“It is difficult to overestimate the impact Elliott Erwitt has had on Magnum and the world of photography,” wrote the agency’s current president, Christina de Mindel. “His images have helped build our general understanding of who we are as a society and as people, and have inspired generations of photographers despite industry changes and trends.”

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“The combination of his casual and humorous approach to photography and his obsessive dedication made him a unique artist that we sadly lost today,” added de Mindel, according to CNN.

Born Elio Romano Erwidge in Paris on July 26, 1928, he spent his early childhood in Milan. His family was of Russian-Jewish descent and left Europe for the US in 1939 shortly before World War II began. They settled in Los Angeles, where Erwitt took studio photography classes at Los Angeles City College. He moved to New York in 1948 and worked as a janitor at the New School for Social Research in exchange for enrolling in film classes there, according to Magnum Photos. In 1951 he enlisted in the US Army and took on photography duties while stationed in Europe. In Paris, he visited the Magnum Photos office and met Robert Capa, the famous war photographer, who later invited him to join the team.

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Erwitt also made a number of documentaries, as well as 18 comedies for HBO in the 1980s, and released monographs, including 1965’s “Improbable Photographs” and 1989’s “Personal Exposures.” In 2015, the Harry Ransom Center at Austin, Texas, acquired his photographic collection from 1946 to 2010, which totals nearly 50,000 prints. A year later, the center launched the “Around the World” retrospective based on the collection.

Works by Eliot Erwitt are on display at La Sucrière in Lyon, France until March 2024.

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Elliot Erwitt was married and divorced four times, had six children, ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.