Elliot Erwitt has been a member of the legendary photo agency, Magnum, since 1953, probably longer than any other living photographer except Cornell Capa. In the thousands of assignments he has done for the agency, as well as those done on his own, Erwitt has probably exposed more than a million frames of film, a number of them containing some of the most historic, perceptively seen, memorable and wittiest images in late twentieth century documentary photography.
Photographic assignments, however, are usually bought and paid for by a client, which makes the photographer a sort of gun for hire, not always free to choose either subject matter or editorial approach.
When a publisher or book designer combs an agency’s files for potential book cover imagery, primary concerns usually boil down to the photograph’s suitability for the books subject matter, potential audience, or publication budget, and not necessarily the strength of the image as a stand-alone work of art. Hence, photographers whose images are available through an agency may find that, in the commercial realm of book publishing, they may not always be represented by their strongest work.
Such, unfortunately, seems to be the case with Erwitt, at least in the books that I have come across. Perhaps future designers will probe a little deeper into his archive, and come up with a few more images that do justice to his unique and important vision. KB

Covering Photography is a web-based archive and resource for the study of the relationship between the history of photography and book cover design. Read more about the project.